Umi
by Suzuriin
Summary: Set 15 years in the future, the original six have disappeared. Now, their replacement's simple task of finding their predecessors has turned into a risky task, with the lives of both sets of Princesses in danger. CANCELLED.
1. Kingdom of Aqua

Well, This is certainly not my first fic, but my first fic at FFN.

Anyway, this fic is about Mermaid Melody, which doesn't belong to me, set in the Mermaid Melody universe. The only thing I own in this is the plot and the various OCs that weren't made by you lovely readers.

* * *

"3…2…1…Happy Birthday Princess!"

The entire kingdom cheered as the clock in the middle of the palace struck 3:45 pm, the exact moment when their beloved Princess was born all those years ago. The Princess in question got up from her large seat and glided over in front of her kingdom. Wiping away the tears of happiness from her eyes, she looked over them and took a deep breath.

"Thank you everyone! As you know, today is my 13th birthday, my coming of age day. Ever since our last Princess went missing, we have been waiting for this day for years! As a birthday present to you all, I would like to announce that today is a new day in this kingdom of the South Atlantic! A new day where I will rule over this kingdom with a peaceful reign, and we'll never have a repeat of the incident 13 yeas ago!" The Princess said, finishing her speech as her clenched hand rose into the air.

As the clapping and cheering from the kingdom of aqua-tailed Mer-people died down, the waiters brought out various seafood dishes and placed them on the many tables around the giant hall they were in. The Princess took her seat again and smiled, wiping even more tears from her eyes. She started at the thousands of Mermaids in front of her.

"Today _will_ be a new day" she whispered, looking at the large painting of the previous princess.

"I'll do you proud, Hanon-sama" Suzumi, Mermaid Princess of the Atlantic Ocean and Aqua Mermaids, whispered happily.

* * *

_13 years prior the Aqua Princess's 13th birthday, another Princess ruled over the South Atlantic. Hanon Houshou was the girl's name. Only 17 years old, she ruled over the kingdom without any hazard. Hanon had to build the kingdom from scratch from an incident four years prior, and kept her peaceful rule lasting for four years. _

_However, one day Hanon disappeared, along with every other Princess of the seven seas, excluding the Orange Princess. All Hanon left was an envelop saying 'Give this to my succeeder' and her, empty, seashell locket. Her and all the other Princesses Pearls where delivered to their respective kingdoms a few weeks later by a pink dolphin._

_Nothing more of the Princesses were heard of again._

_Eventually, new Princesses were born for the six oceans devoid of rulers. They grew up, all having envelops containing from the previous Princess of their kingdom, explaining the details of their disappearance and making them swear to never reveal the letter to anyone else. _

_13 years have past.

* * *

_

A few hours later, when the party had died down and everyone was too tired to do anything else but go home, Suzumi was left alone in her room.

The 13 year old swam over to her large mirror and dressing table and sighed. She removed the clips from her bun made out of her hundreds of braids. She rubbed her head, happy to be free from the stinging sensation of at least 30 clips digging in her scalp. She decided to work on the braids later, seeing as there was too many of them for her to handle, and began unbuttoning her long ball gown. She opened a drawer for a seashell bra, but couldn't find any. However, a light blue singlet she got for her 12th birthday was in the drawer and she slipped that on instead. It stretched a far bit over her chest, considering her large breast size for her age, but it would have to do until more seashell bras could be made.

Suzumi opened the door to the small underwater garden the kingdom had, and waited for the mail to be delivered. In the meantime, she took off her shell locket and looked inside. Her pearl was a little dull in colour, for it not being cleaned in a while, but Suzumi could perfectly see her reflection. She looked a lot like the previous princess, Hanon, but her eyes and hair were much darker than the previous Princess's. Her hair was also slightly straighter and much shorter, only reaching midway down her back. Her eyes were smaller too, a lot like the previous North Atlantic Princess's. Her tail was the same Aqua colour, if only a shade darker.

Suzumi closed the locket and tied to around her neck before smashing it into the ground. She hated her looks. Despite what people told her of her being so similar to Hanon, she wanted to be almost exactly like her. Hanon was her role model, her idol. She was honoured to have such a great Princess rule before her, and write her a letter. Even though every other Princess had one, she still held hers in higher regard.

While lost in her self-pitying thoughts, a pink dolphin swam towards her and dropped a single letter on her head. Being used to this strange quirk of the dolphin, she picked it off her head and opened it.

"Dear Suzumi…" She read, her eyes widening at every word.

* * *

Cliffhanger. Oh noes.

EDIT:

Ayup. I have all the characters I need. No more entries, please.


	2. Shop of Cakes

Wow. Why didn't anyone tell me Highschool gave you so much homework that prevented you from writing o.o

Anyway, Chapter 2 is here.

This chapter originally had an entirely different plan, but I threw that all out in the last second and wrote this

Now that I think about it, the other chapter plan would've been way more excepted by the general audience than this chapter. Oh well. You guys will live.

Anyway, enjoy Umi Chapter 2

* * *

"Houko! Houko!" a teenaged boy yelled as he ran down the stairs of his apartment and into the lobby. The woman standing next to the automatic doors smiled at him.

"It took you long enough Kojirou" Houko said to the boy, leaning on his knees to try and catch his breath.

"Sorry Houko! I got a little distracted when talking to my girlfriend on the phone" He laughed. Houko smiled again and started to walk out the door. Kojirou caught his breath and ran after Houko as the two headed towards the small shop they owned by the seaside.

Kojirou had known Houko ever since he was four. He had seen Houko, only seventeen at the time, walking down the road next to the beach. He had thought nothing of her until she stopped and stared at the ocean. Not for just a minute like some people might, but for a full 10 minutes. Being the curious and out-going four year old at the time, he walked up to her and asked what she was looking at. Houko had snapped out of her day dream, knelt down to his height and asked him where his parents were, he simply replied they were still swimming, and added that he was getting tired of waiting for them to come back after 5 days. Houko bit her lip and asked him if he wanted dinner at her place. Not have had the proper 'stranger danger' education that he should've, he accepted. He was very glad that he didn't have that education, or else he would've been stuck on the streets and grown up like a wild thing.

"So Kojirou, how's your girlfriend?" Houko asked while walking down the rubbish free streets of their small town.

"You mean Atsuna? She's a little tired after her highschool exams, but otherwise fine" Kojirou said, looking at the woman next to him.

"_She's changed so much…"_ he thought, looking her up and down.

When he had met Houko at seventeen, her dark blue hair was down to her waist and often done in a long, think braid. Her skin had been beautiful and tanned ever so slightly to perfection, her eyes were lively and friendly, coloured a deep chocolate brown and she was in a great, fit shape. Now that she was about thirty, you could tell that she's undergone lots of changes. Her dark blue hair has gone lighter and she tries to keep it no longer than her chin these days. Her skin has been worn out from all the travels and labour she had been doing for two people until Kojirou had been old enough to pull his own weight. Her cheerful eyes have retained its beautiful brown colour, but they've grown a tired look, like she's seen too many awful things in her life time, and she's no longer as skinny and fit as a super model. Despite all these changes from her age and poor lifestyle, she's still gained the nickname from Kojirou's friends 'Milf', short for 'Mother I'd love to f---'.

As the two neared the beach, Houko looked over to Kojirou and frowned.

"You forgot your hair tie today" she said simply as Kojirou slapped his head in embarrassment.

"Can I borrow yours?" He asked Houko, pointing to her hair tie that was keeping what little of the hair she had back out of her face. The older woman sighed.

"Just this once Kojirou" Houko said, taking off her hair tie and letting her short hair fall out in front of her face, it's waves perfectly framing her facial features. Kojirou tied his light blue, mid-neck length hair back and tried not to blush. He had told his friends plenty of times that if Houko wasn't his mother figure, and if he didn't have a girlfriend, he'd definitely tap her.

"So, how many clients do we have today?" Kojirou asked as the two walked down the ocean road to the cake store he and Houko owned. Houko held up two fingers as she inserted the store key into the key hole and turned, opening the store.

"Cinnamon Blossoms …" Kojirou read out loud as they entered the store "...is now open!" he finished, turning the sign that read 'Sorry, we're closed' over to read 'Welcome! We're opened!". Houko smiled at Kojirou's habit of announcing when the store opens to no one in particular and walked behind the light green painted door.

"It's your turn to be at the counter!" Houko called out from behind the door. Kojirou nodded and walked behind the glass counter that displayed some of the cakes the store sold and pulled up a stool, grabbed the small notepad and started to doodle as he waited for customers.

Kojirou had suggested the idea of a cake shop years ago when Houko had been fired from her current job and was having money problems. When Houko's friend sent a few thousand dollars to Houko for support, Houko used most of it to buy a photo shop that was losing business and remodelled it to be suitable for baking cakes. It was a fairly popular shop, since Houko was well known in the town, but lately it had been losing business. None the less, Houko and Kojirou plodded on with their jobs.

Kojirou, having served no customers, had almost fallen asleep on the counter when the phone rang.

"Hello! This is Cinnamon Blossoms! How may I help you?" He asked, trying to sound as natural as possible.

"Is there a chance that someone called Mayumi is there?" someone at the other end of the phone asked impatiently. Kojirou shook his head, despite how he knew that the caller wouldn't be able to tell whether he was shaking his head or not.

"I don't think so, but my boss might know someone called Mayumi…" Kojirou told the caller.

"Don't bother asking them, it's not worth your time" the caller said as they cut through his sentence and hung up. Kojirou looked at the phone, and set it back down on its holder. He sighed and lent on the wall next to him. He could hear the irritating sound of the blender behind the wall separating the kitchen from the shop.

"I swear either Houko or Atsuna knew someone called Mayumi…" he said out loud to no one in particular, watching the sun ascend through the sky, ever so slowly.

* * *

"Hiromu, did you get any reply?" The young Princess asked the person next to her who was hanging up a phone.

"Of course, since I was obviously talking to someone, but they didn't have any good information about Mayumi" the person called Hiromu replied to their Princess. She frowned and looked out the window of the airport.

"I guess this calls for a Mermaid Princess meeting, right Hiromu?" the Princess asked her servant, crossing her arms.

"What else would we do…Seira?" Hiromu said, earning herself a grim smile from her Orange haired Mermaid Princess.

* * *

Cliffhanger again. Ayup.

Absolutely nothing happened except character introduction/development.

Expect this fic to be longer than my expected 10 chapters by the way its going folks!


	3. Princesses of Oceans

So.

I finished this chapter much quicker than I expected.

I would've finished it last night if I wasn't too busy looking for Ryoko and Tsuruya's (from Haruhi Suzumiya) song files. Which I still haven't found -hint hint-

I don't own Mermaid Melody, or half the characters in this fic. Concrit makes me happy and Flames make me laugh

Enjoy Chapter 3 of 'Umi'

* * *

_Hiya Suzumi! _

_I'm Sakura Hanabi, the North Pacific Princess! I'm sure you heard of me!_

_Anyway, Happy Birthday! And now that you're 13, you can join our Princess meetings! _

_The head of the meetings, Seira, is on land doing some investigation, so it might take a while for her to get back. Still, you should come over here and meet everyone else!_

_From_

_Sakura Hanabi_

"YES!"

The chef dropped her spoon in her soup out of surprise when she heard Suzumi's cry of Joy. She fished around in the hot soup, trying to find the spoon and sighed.

"_She's probably just got her invitation" _the chef thought as her co-workers exchanged glances.

"Meru, Meru!" Suzumi called out as she swam as fast as she could through the palace. She rounded a corner and swam into the first door she saw. Her advisor was sitting on her bed, going through her collection of letters.

"Meru, I can go to the princess meetings now!" Suzumi squealed as she landed on Meru's bed, sending her letters flying everywhere. Meru smiled as the young girl laughed happily.

Shortly before Hanon disappeared, the Princess told Meru that she was the most trusted mermaid out of her entire kingdom and that if anything happened, that she should lead the country. Meru was honoured at the compliment, but never took it seriously until Hanon did disappear. For the few years that Suzumi wasn't alive for, Meru was in charge of the kingdom. When Suzumi was born, Meru was her caretaker, and now that she's old enough to run the kingdom on her own, she's her advisor.

"That's great!" Meru said, trying to hide the urge to yell at Suzumi to pick up all her letters that went flying.

"I know! And can you lend me a map? I'm not entirely sure how to get to the Orange kingdom…" Suzumi said, turning over on her stomach. Meru laughed at Suzumi's failure to seem adult-like, admitting that she had no idea how to get to the Indian Ocean.

"I have a map, but you won't need one, since Roselle is coming tomorrow to lead you" Meru said, gliding off the bed and picking up the letters. Suzumi's face brightened up.

"Roselle? She's actually coming?" Suzumi exclaimed "When?"

"Later this afternoon" Meru said, smiling at Suzumi's reaction "She'll be staying the night, and tomorrow you two will leave". Suzumi didn't even bother replying, since her swimming hastily to her bedroom was enough to give Meru an idea of what she was feeling.

* * *

Suzumi sat on her bed and looked at her bookshelf. She had many books from above the ocean stacked on the many shelves. It was good having such a large collection to show off, but it was very bad when there were so many good books to choose from. Suzumi sighed and closed her eyes and waved her finger around. When she opened her eyes, her finger was pointing towards her music book. She smiled and took it out. Her music book was actually a collection of 'Jpop' lyrics Hanon had put together when she was living on land. Sadly for Suzumi, she didn't know the tune of the songs, but she enjoyed making up her own, or managing to find someone who did know the tune.

"Nazonazo mitai ni chikyuugi wo tokiakashitara…" Suzumi sang, opening up to the page to one of her favourite songs "Watashi wa dokoka e wa ikenai"

"Brilliant!" a familiar voice called. Suzumi straightened up and looked to the window to the left of her bed.

"Will you ever change sides?" Suzumi asked the dark blue tailed mermaid sitting on her windowsill.

"I like the left side more than the right" the familiar mermaid replied simply "It doesn't have splinters". Suzumi set down her music book and hugged her best friend, Roselle.

"Happy Birthday Suzumu" Roselle laughed as she pushed Suzumi away. Suzumi groaned at the nickname Roselle gave her.

"Do you really think I'm that good? At singing I mean" Suzumi asked.

"Well, pretty much all mermaids are good singers, so I guess that's kinda granted that you're good" Roselle replied, getting off the windowsill and looking at Suzumi's lyric book. Suzumi sighed and braced herself for what was coming next.

"What are these songs anyway? Don't you have any mermaid songs?" Roselle asked, raising her eyebrow 'I mean, 'Sunny Sunny Fun? Can't you settle for a normal song like…Legend of Mermaid?'. Suzumi laughed and shook her head.

"They get old after a while" she replied, looking at her friend. Roselle just nodded and yawned.

"Well, I've been swimming all night, so mind if I go to bed now? It's only 7:00" Roselle said, untying her seashell bra and hopping in Suzumi's bed. Suzumi smiled at her friend's easy going ways.

"_How many years has it been? 2 I think" _Suzumi thought, looking at her best friend. Suzumi loved looking at the details of things. It always fascinated her, especially with people. She swam quietly over to where Roselle was and looked her.

When they first met nine years ago, Roselle's hair was wavy and longer than her tail. It always infuriated the girl that she wasn't allowed short hair. Every year however, she would cut a centimetre off. When she was 13, she decided to cut it all off and leave just a blob of hair on her head. People complained it was too similar to a boy's haircut, but she just laughed it off. Suzumi liked the change, since it suited Roselle's personality more than long hair. Like Roselle's successor, Noel, her hair was a pale shade of blue. Her eyes were a steely blue colour. She was in almost every physical way like Noel. She felt happy for her friend, but she was incredibly jealous. She would love to be thought of as a spitting image of Hanon.

Suzumi sighed and rubbed her eyes. She had been up since 5:00 that morning, so she figured it'd be reasonable enough to sleep at this hour too. She slipped off her singlet and hopped in bed with Roselle.

"_Just like old times…" _she thought happily.

* * *

"Say something Suzumu, your silence is disturbing" Roselle said, looking behind at her stunned friend "It's just the largest castle in the entire sea; there are bigger ones on land". Suzumi shook her head to break out of her trance and followed Roselle.

After a week of travelling and side tracks, the two made it to the largest castle under the ocean. The Orange Kingdom's Castle. Years ago, it was the Pink Kingdom's Castle, but ever since the Orange Princess was made the leader of all the Mermaid Kingdoms, the Orange castle was given renovations to make it more suitable for the Princess meetings.

"I know a way to get into the castle without making a commotion" Roselle said, grabbing Suzumi's hand.

"Commotion?" Suzumi asked. Roselle sighed.

"You know, like a big welcoming ceremony" Roselle said. Suzumi looked slightly disappointed, but she would rather meet the rest of the princesses than have a welcoming ceremony.

As the two were swimming, Roselle bent over and picked up an orange rock.

"Rub this over your tail; I'll get the wigs ready" Roselle commanded Suzumi as she fished through her bag. As Suzumi rubbed, her tail started turning orange. Suzumi dropped the rock in shock and looked at Roselle.

"It's temporary, don't worry" Roselle said, handing Suzumi a long orange wig. Suzumi put it on without saying anything, picked up the rock and handed it to Roselle. Roselle finished her 'transformation' and began swimming towards the castle. Nobody noticed the flaws in their disguise, like their seashell bras being Aqua and Deep Blue, and they reached the castle without any trouble.

"Okay, Suzumi, hand me your wig and I'll get rid of your orange tail" Roselle said.

"Roselle, you should really stop using that disguise" A voice came from behind them "It doesn't hurt that much to have our kingdom welcome you!". Roselle's shoulders slumped as she turned around.

"Hey Hiromu" she said, frowning at the older mermaid. Hiromu laughed.

"Good to see you Roselle" Hiromu laughed, and looked at Suzumi.

"You must be the Aqua princess! Welcome to the Indian Ocean" Hiromu said, taking Suzumi's hand and shook it "I'm Hiromu Tanake, Seira's advisor

"It's a pleasure!" Suzumi replied, her formal Princess side taking over. Hiromu smiled in return. As well as her Princess side, her detailed side took over.

Hiromu had dark, auburn hair. It had many bangs framing her face, and that was it. It reached no farther than the top of her neck. Her eyes were a dark reddish colour, but it was hard to tell by the small glasses taking up half of her eye height, not that her eyes were terribly big to begin with. She had a very un-feminine body; very little curves or bust. It was hard to notice though, since Hiromu used a dark orange, long sleeved shirt instead of a bra made out of seashells to cover her chest. Her tail was a darker orange than what Suzumi had seen from the rest of the Orange mermaids.

"So, I'll show Suzumi her room while you, Roselle, go to the meeting room" Hiromu said, making Suzumi break away from her thoughts. Roselle waved good bye to Suzumi as she swam to the centre of the castle. Suzumi waved back, and then turned to Hiromu and saw that the orange mermaid had already swum towards her room.

"So, how many Mermaid Princesses are here?" She asked, catching up to Hiromu.

"Hmm" Hiromu thought, still swimming "We have the Aqua Princess, you, the Deep Blue Princess, the Purple Princess, the Pink Princess and…that's it". Suzumi's eyes widened.

"Where are Mayumi and Seira?" Suzumi asked "Or the Yellow Princess?". Hiromu shrugged.

"Well, Mayumi is on land somewhere, Seira is looking for Mayumi and lord knows where the Yellow Princess is" Hiromu said. She stopped at a door, inserted the key and opened the door. Inside was a large circular room with furniture and six doors about two meters from each other. While the room had an orange theme, like the rest of the castle, the six doors were painted pink, aqua, green, deep blue, purple or yellow.

"Your room is obviously the Aqua one" Hiromu said, pointing to the left of the room "The other mermaids are in the meeting room, so when you're settled down just call and I'll lead you there" Hiromu finished, and glided out of the room.

Suzumi smiled at the door that Hiromu left from and swam to her room. She opened the door and looked around. The room was very strange. It was like what the ocean's name suggested, very Indian styled. The colour theme was light blue, but it was nothing like Suzumi's room back home. She sat down on the bed and sighed happily. Her muscles relaxed and the tension in her back was gone. It was the first time in a week that she had properly relaxed.

"_I'll sleep for a bit…They can wait long enough…" _Suzumi thought, drifting off to sleep.

* * *

No cliffhanger? Oh Mah Lawd!

I won't post my little ramblings here, but your OCs WILL appear next chapter.

Anyway, the next chapter will be out later. This is the longest chapter so far, so yeah. I'm all written out.


	4. Gathering of Princesses

This is the chapter I've been dreading and you've been awaiting!

The one where your OCs appear! Yay!

I made sure to finish this before my birthday, so consider this a one day early gift to you guys to be great readers!

And I don't own MMPPP. If I did, then this fic would be in a magazine with pictures drawn by Hanamori instead of words! Yay!

* * *

"This is the right window, right?" A strong female voice asked.

"Probably, I can see your stuff in that room, so it should be alright to go in" another, softer voice replied.

Suzumi's eyes shot opened as two mermaids fell through her window. She got up and eyed the two. One had platinum blonde hair and a warm yellow tail, while the other's hair was a dark brown, and her tail's colour mirrored the colour of an emerald. The two got up and looked at Suzumi, equally shocked at the sight of someone, let alone an Aqua mermaid, in the empty room.

The silence between the three was awkward. Suzumi quickly glanced at the various clothes and items a mermaid would have.

"So, is the stuff over there yours?" She asked, swimming down off the bed and down to their level.

"Yes" the yellow tailed mermaid replied. After that was said the silence attacked for another few seconds.

"I'm Suzumi, Princess of the Aqua Mermaid's kingdom" Suzumi said, putting out her hand for the other two to shake. Instead they smiled at her and moved closer.

"Really?!" The green tailed mermaid exclaimed "I've heard of you! You look nothing like I imagined you!". Suzumi raised her eyebrows, but kept her out stretched hand steady. The Yellow mermaid grabbed it instead.

"I'm Senna! I'm a mermaid Princess too, I bet you can tell which kingdom I rule" the Yellow mermaid said, holding Suzumi's hand with both of hers "And Mayumi over there is the Green kingdom's Princess". Suzumi looked at both, frozen in excitement and shock. Mayumi then smiled at Suzumi and opened her mouth to say something when the aqua painted door swung open.

"Suzumi, are you okay? You've been asleep for 3 hours…" Hiromu's deep voice called from the doorway. The advisor looked through her glasses to see Suzumi shaking hands with the two mermaids that were thought to be missing. Hiromu took a deep breath and was so loud she almost yelled.

"Where the hell have you guys been?!" Hiromu yelled, her hands high in the air "We've been looking for you! Even Seira got off her princess ass and looked for you!". The three girls looked surprised at the normally calm Hiromu's outburst. The young woman shook her head in impatience and swam to the side of the door.

"Everyone has been waiting for a while, please leave the room" Hiromu said with almost a bitter tone in her voice "I'm sorry that you were kept waiting to get outside". The three princesses swam out of the two rooms and into the corridor.

"How does she get the power to speak to us like that?" Suzumi asked, still shocked out the outburst.

"Hiromu has a lot more respect than a lot of people in the mermaid world" Senna answered "Even some Princesses doesn't have as much respect as she does".

"She's a very intelligent person whose entire life is dedicated to this world of ours" Mayumi added on "She's sacrificed more than we could ever imagine to keep all the mermaid kingdoms safe, from what she's done, she has every right in the world to yell at us". Suzumi scratched her head in embarrassment and followed the older mermaids to the meeting room.

Several gasps were heard as the girls entered the room. Suzumi stood between Senna and Mayumi as they looked at the other three Mermaid Princesses. Roselle got up and swam to Suzumi as Senna and Mayumi sat down in their kingdom's coloured seat.

"Suzumi! It took you long enough!" Roselle laughed as she put her arm around Suzumi's shoulders.

"Everyone, this is Suzumi Paaku" Roselle laughed happily "She won't scare you too much". Suzumi smiled nervously as she looked at everyone at the small circular table in front of her. The seven seats weren't all filled; with the only ones unoccupied with a mermaid was the orange seat, the aqua seat and the deep blue seat. Suzumi looked at the other princesses over while Roselle took Suzumi to her seat. The mermaid sitting next to her was Mayumi, who she had met many times before thanks to their kingdoms being next to each other. Across from her was Senna, who she had never met before, except for the strange encounter they had five minutes ago. The rest of the mermaids, bar Roselle, she had never met before.

"Okay girls, let's get this meeting started" the familiar deep voice of Hiromu called as the redhead opened the door. The mermaids all stood up and Hiromu headed to the Orange chair at the head of the round table.

"First off, before we say anything, I would like to say that Seira is still on land, looking for Mayumi and Senna," Hiromu said, sending a short glare to the two mermaids "So I'll lead this meeting". She signalled the mermaid to sit down as she sat down herself.

"Now, I'd like to welcome Suzumi Paaku to the ranks of us Princesses" Hiromu said, obviously not wanting to focus on Suzumi and get on with the meeting.

"You've met Roselle Coxone, Senna Inohara and Mayumi Takano before" Hiromu said, pointing to each mermaid as she named them "and these two are Yukina Tougen and Sakura Hanabi".

"Anyway, to a more important matter" Hiromu said, pushing up her glasses "where in the name of all that is holy have you two been?" she continued, sounding much calmer than she did before. Mayumi and Senna stood up in union and swam next to Hiromu.

"The reason we were away for so long was because…" Senna said, looking at Mayumi to finish the sentence.

"We were on land for a short holiday like you promised us Hiromu" Mayumi said, stopping Hiromu from butting in "and we_ think_ we found Rina Touin". Everyone in the room started muttering something to the nearest person except Suzumi, who was pretty clueless to what this news meant.

"You did?!" Hiromu gasped, standing up and receiving nods from the two girls.

"That is fantastic! That means that Operation Trouver Le Princesse will definetly be executed!" Hiromu exclaimed. The room suddenly became tense and silent from those words.

"Suzumi, I apologise that this had to be your first meeting" Hiromu started "But this operation is vital". Suzumi nodded in confusion. Roselle gave Suzumi a look which read 'I'll tell you later'.

"Now, because of this, no one can go anywhere until Seira comes back, and that means I'll have to go meet her on land and get her down here as fast as I can, which means I need to leave one of you in charge" Hiromu said, looking around the room "Mayumi, since you're the oldest, you're in charge…and can you and Senna stay behind when the meeting ends? I need more details on your trip on land". Senna and Mayumi nodded as Hiromu took out the small mallet from under the desk and hit it twice on the bench, signalling the end of the meeting.

The four mermaids swam out of the room and into the large lobby of the castle, where Suzumi sat down on the nearest seat and looked at Roselle.

"Explain" she said, patting the seat next to her "What is this operation?" Roselle sighed and sat down, followed by Yukina and Sakura.

"The Operation is something that has been planned for years" Yukina explained before Roselle could open her mouth "It's basically an operation to find the previous Princesses, since their disappearances all those years ago was very alarming. It was more alarming considering the evils they had to fight years before, and it might be connected to that". Roselle cleared her throat and continued.

"The Operation is where two Mermaid Princesses at a time spend about a week and a half on land, and then they swap over with another two Princesses. The process repeats until we find all the Former Princesses" Roselle continued to explain "And in between the swapping process, we have Princess Meetings"

"It's a very controversial topic, but we all decided to go through with the operation, except you" Yukina added onto Roselle. Suzumi's eye's lit up as she stood up.

"Well, I'll definitely be doing the operation! If it's for Hanon-sama!" Suzumi said, clenching her fists and holding them up in front of her chest. The other Princesses smiled.

"We knew you'd say that" Sakura laughed.

* * *

"Suzumi! Wake up!" Mayumi called, knocking on the young Aqua Princess's door "Seira's back! We can decide who's going on land first!". The green tailed mermaid stood back as Suzumi burst through the door, the largest grin placed on her face.

"Really? Where?" Suzumi asked, running her fingers threw her hair in an attempt to comb it.

"She's in the meeting room" Mayumi laughed "You can comb your hair and put on a nice shirt. Suzumi nodded and swam back in her room and ran through her drawers. It had become a recent fashion in the mermaid world to wear human shirts instead of seashell bras. Suzumi picked out a frilly powder blue shirt with long sleeves. The frills started from her elbow to her wrist and from the bottom of her chest to the top of her tail. She smiled and slipped the shirt on. She combed her hair and put her aqua coloured bracelets on and disappeared downstairs.

She quickly reached the meeting room and sat down in her seat next to Mayumi. She looked around and noticed that Sakura and Senna was still to come down. But that was the least of her interests, since she could now see what Seira looked like.

Seira was incredibly beautiful. Her hair had darkened since she was born, and it now reached the top of her fins. Her bangs were now down to her shoulders, and were the only hair that was loose since the rest of her hair was in a long braid. She was a lot older looking and she had a graceful air about her.

The door opened and Senna and Sakura, followed by a very tired Hiromu, entered the room. The two Princesses sat next to each other and Hiromu headed over to where Seira was.

"Now, you all know why you're here…" Seira started as the noise died down "after staying up most of last night and thinking about this, we've decided that Suzumi and Sakura should be the first to head up together on land". Everybody nodded in agreement, but Roselle's mood experienced an ugly turn and the young woman started to scowl. Seira laughed as she noticed this.

"Remember Roselle, Suzumi needs to make friend with other Princesses, so give her some space" Seira laughed as Roselle blushed. Suzumi gave her friend a sympathetic smile while listening to what Seira said next.

"You two will leave this afternoon, so I recommend you pack your things as soon as this meeting's over. Meanwhile, the rest of you can either stay at this castle for the next one and a half weeks, or go back to you kingdoms, since it's been a week since Sakura sent out the letter" Seira finished, and hit the desk with the small mallet. Sakura and Suzumi looked at each other and smiled as they swam back to their rooms, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

Roselle followed Suzumi back to her room, and stood by the door, waiting for her to come back out. An hour later, Suzumi came out with a heavy bag, not expecting Roselle to be there.

"Roselle! This will be so exciting! I was chosen first!" Suzumi managed to say as her friend wrapped her arms around her.

"Good luck Suzumi" Roselle said bitterly as she pulled away "The human world isn't as beautiful as you may think…" the dark blue mermaid muttered as she looked away from Suzumi's confused face.

* * *

-shield self from flames-

I hope I wrote your characters right, give me a shout out if I didn't

And reviews are loved! I love my ego being inflated/deflated :p.

And expect the next chapter to be up sometime this weekend or early next week

And notice how the majority of the Princesses' names start with S. Seira, Senna, Sakura and Suzumi :p


	5. Girl of Bubbles

Bwahaha.

I'm back.

Thank you for the review and birthday message Awesome Rapidash!

Now, here is Umi Chapter 5 I don't own Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. One day I will though, and the 3rd series, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch generic shoujo word will be hitting the TV screens near you. And the show would be dubbed by now :kicks ADV:

* * *

"Honestly Sakura, are you sure we're supposed to be here?" Suzumi asked, pulling down her too-short skirt and looking up and down the empty road. Sakura laughed nervously and pulled out her map.

"Well, not at all really…" Sakura started, as a young boy and his mother ran down the street.

"Miss! Where is everyone?" Sakura called out. The woman turned around, allowing the girls to see her pale and disturbed face.

"They're down by the town square…someone's turning into bubbles!"

* * *

Earlier that day, just before lunch, the two princesses had bid farewell to their fellow princesses and the residents of the ocean and swam up to land.

The two girl's bodies broke through the surface of the water in a loud splash. Suzumi gasped at the sting of the hot air and went underwater again. Sakura just laughed and pulled Suzumi out of the water again. Suzumi shivered and looked around.

"This feels so weird…" she exclaimed, breathing in some air again and shivering. She looked around and found that she was in a small cove surrounded by cliffs. She had seen bigger cliffs underwater, but these cliffs amazed her, the way the sun in the middle of the sky hit the rocks and created these beautiful shadows. Sakura smiled at her expression and waved her hand in front of the younger girl's face.

"On top of these cliffs is a small town!" Sakura said, swimming near a large, flat rock "My father lives in the town and so does this boy I like" Sakura continued, getting up onto the rock. In a bright flash of light, Suzumi saw Sakura lose her tail and her long light blonde hair and have them replaced with long, slender legs and shorter, darker brown hair. Suzumi covered her eyes and waited for Sakura to put some clothes she packed on.

"You can look now" Sakura laughed as she twirled around, showing off her outfit to Suzumi. She was wearing a pair of short white shorts with silver thread trimming the edges and pockets. A darkish pink leather belt was holding the shorts up, but it was barley visible from under her magenta elbow sleeved shirt with a white ribbon wrapped under her bust.

"That's so pretty!" Suzumi exclaimed as she pushed herself out of the water and transformed. She almost fell over from the shock of having legs to walk on, but Sakura held her up, while fishing through her bag for clothes Suzumi could wear and handed them over.

"Thanks" Suzumi said, stumbling over to the wall of the cliff and looked at her clothes. She easily slipped her bra and shirt on, but she bit her lip when it came to her underwear and skirt. Sakura laughed and walked over next to her.

"Do you need help?" Sakura asked, and straight away Suzumi nodded in embarrassment. After a few minutes of stumbling and problems, Suzumi was dressed and looked like a human. She walked over to the edge of the rock and looked at her reflection.

Her hair had always been shorter than normal in the mermaid world, but now it was halfway down her neck and was now a Cobalt Blue, instead of an Azure. Her eyes were a grey colour, instead of a Dodger Blue shade. She had a Teal singlet on, with a shirt of the same colour that could clip up over the top of it. Her two layer skirt was a silver colour, and her clunky shoes were a very light shade of blue. Suzumi smiled and turned to Sakura.

"So, how do we get out of here?" Suzumi asked Sakura, who immediately hit her head with her hand and muttered 'oops'. Suzumi hit her head too, and hopped back in the water. She swam to the shore on the other side of the cliff and transformed back into a human, with all her previous clothes on. Sakura caught up with Suzumi and gasped as she transformed with her clothes still on.

"I had no idea we could do that!" Sakura laughed nervously as Suzumi slapped Sakura over the head playfully. The two walked, or in Suzumi's case, wobbled, up the sandy bank and into the disturbingly empty streets.

"Honestly Sakura, are you sure we're supposed to be here?" Suzumi asked, pulling down her too-short skirt and looking up and down the empty road. Sakura laughed nervously and pulled out her map.

"Well, not at all really…" Sakura started, as a young boy and his mother ran down the street.

"Miss! Where is everyone?" Sakura called out. The woman turned around, allowing the girls to see her pale and disturbed face.

"They're down by the town square…someone's turning into bubbles!" the woman whimpered as she took her son back to their house. Sakura and Suzumi were already running to the town square, the same thoughts running through their minds.

"_What Mermaid would be foolish enough to do this?"_

The girls arrived at town square while the poor mermaid was already halfway through her transformation into bubbles. Her flesh was bubbling up like boiling water and her blood was seeping through the bubble spaces. There were already enough bubbles so that the blood wouldn't come through anymore, but there was already an impressive amount surrounding her. She was in her mermaid form and was hanging onto the edge of the fountain, crying from the pain and embarrassment.

"What happened to her?" Suzumi whispered in fright, catching the attention of a boy only a few years older than her.

"She was sitting next to the fountain just over there when somebody knocked her into the water" the young man explained "she turned into a mermaid, and then she started bubbling up like that". The boy's female companion was clinging onto his arm, and seemed to be crying out of fear. No pity for the poor mermaid.

"C'mon Sakura, let's get her away from this place and take her to the ocean…" Suzumi whispered as she ran out of the crowd of onlookers and over to the mermaid.

"I'm Princess Suzumi" Suzumi whispered to the girl as she knelt down. The mermaid seemed to be no older than ten, and was pink tailed. The girl looked at Suzumi's chest, where the seashell necklace was. Her eye's widened, and then sighed in relief.

"I'm Chiho" the girl whispered weakly back "Can you take me to my father?". Suzumi nodded and motioned over to Sakura to come over. The two girls lifted their fellow mermaid up and took her over to where Chiho said she lived. The Princesses ignored the disgusting, bubbling feeling and quickly took Chiho to her destination.

They reached the apartment easily, thanks to Sakura's knowledge of the town, and ran into the lobby.

"My room's on the 2nd floor" Chiho muttered, pointing to the elevator. The fin of the girl's tail had already bubbled so much it had fallen off. Suzumi and Sakura ran toward the elevator, trying to ignore the stare they were getting by the cleaner woman, and arrived on the 2nd floor in no time. The floor was ordinary, with a dark blue carpet. Cream coloured walls and about eight oak doors on both sides of the walls. Chiho weakly jerked her head towards the far end of the corridor. The girls quickly ran towards the lone door and rang the doorbell together.

"Chiho! Were have…" a high voice called as the door slowly opened. A young girl, a little older than Chiho was holding the door open with a look on her face that could make you cry.

"Shizu…" Chiho whispered as she looked at her older sister. Shizu grabbed her sister out of Sakura and Suzumi's arms and carried her into the house.

"Father! Father! Chiho's turning into bubbles!" the young girl screamed at the nearest door. She stood back as her father came crashing out of the door, his mouth covered with his hand and his eyes wide in horror from seeing his daughter falling apart before his eyes. The man kneeled down to his daughter's level and ran one hand through his hair, while the other was gripping what was left of Chiho's hand. Suzumi and Sakura turned to leave when Chiho gasped out to them.

"Princesses! Please stay…" she whimpered, leading her father looked up to them with a surprised look on his face. The man had spiky, light orange hair and reddish brown eyes. He was wearing a simple t-shirt, jean shorts and looked like any average father. His eyes were wide in surprise when he saw the girl's seashell locket with small decorations on the outside, signifying their difference as a princess. He gave them a small smile.

"Thank you…" he whispered as the two walked in the small apartment. Chiho smiled and closed her eyes.

"I'll be able to see Mom from heaven, right Dad?" Chiho whispered as she disappeared into a small pile of bubbles. Shizu closed her eyes and walked out of their small apartment and towards the elevator, ignoring her father's attempts to keep her inside. The man sighed and stood up, wiping his eyes and looking at the two Princesses.

"How did she get found out?" he asked, his face looking calm, but his eyes were so miserable to look into it sent shivers down their spines.

"She was sitting in the town square's fountain and…she was knocked over into the water…" Sakura said, looking at her feet. Chiho's father nodded and beckoned the girl's into the house.

"What are your names?" He asked, motioning towards the worn sofa next to the kitchen counter.

"I'm Sakura Hanabi, and she's Suzumi Paaku" Sakura replied, sitting down on the sofa. The man nodded and pulled up the stool from the kitchen counter and sat down.

"And you're the Mermaid Princesses from the…" the man said, looking at their lockets "South Atlantic and North Pacific, right?". Suzumi stood up and clutched her locket.

"How did you know?" she said, looking at him suspiciously. The man smiled weakly and held out his hand.

"I'm Kaito Doumoto" he said simply, amused by the gasps of amazement from the girls infront of him

* * *

"Houko, I'm going out to lunch with Atsuna" Kojirou called as he left the store. Houko nodded and continued staring at nothing from the counter. Kojirou turned the corner and sighed.

"Where the feck has everyone gone?" Kojirou thought angrily, kicking a fallen cherry across the road "If business continues like this, then Atsuna's parents won't let her come anywhere near me…" he mumbled bitterly. He walked down the small alley shortcut when he saw a small figure running towards him. He blinked and saw a girl with short strawberry blonde hair and light blue eyes.

"Shizu!" he called out happily to the girl. As she came closer, he could hear her violently sobbing. She threw herself onto Kojirou and buried her head in his shirt.

"Chiho's dead" the girl said between sobs, clinging onto his body. Kojirou looked at the poor girl and stroked her hair.

"Do you want to help around the shop?" he asked her, offering her favourite form of comfort. Shizu nodded, wiped her eyes and stood up straight. Kojirou took the girl's hand and led her out of the alley. He arrived at the shop in no time, since it had already been a minute since he left.

"Houko! Shizu wants to help around the shop!" Kojirou said, opening the door and scaring the half asleep woman.

"Really?" Houko asked, walking out behind the counter and bending down to Shizu's level "Well then, Shizu Doumoto, go get me my big cook book and meet me in the kitchen!" Shizu nodded hesitantly and ran into the door behind the kitchen.

"Chiho died…and I didn't want to see her so miserable…" Kojirou laughed sadly when he was sure Shizu was out of hearing range. Houko's bright smile faded as she looked at the door Shizu just ran through.

"That explains why her face was so red and puffy…" Houko sighed, looking out towards the ocean "What's going on? Life isn't as it was before…" Houko rhetorically questioned, walking through the door to help Shizu.

* * *

Author Notes: Yesm, I am starting to be organised.

I think this was a pretty good chapter. I will make a timeline soon, since everyone's age and everything is somewhat confusing XD. And I will redo the first chapter a bit, since I was re-reading and found many mistakes.

Anyway, please review and flame if you want, I deserve a laugh after today :grumble:


	6. Town of meetings

Whoop.

That was a long period between updates.

_Anyway_, enjoy Umi Chapter 6! I do not own Mermaid Melody by the way! But I'm sure you guys know that by now!

* * *

_Snooooooore._

"I swear to god Kinoh if you don't wake up I will drag you into the VIP box and throw you out the window in the middle of a game" a deep voice sighed, kicking the girl who was trapped in a very loud slumber.

"Maaa, Hiromu?" The girl asked, waking up and staring into the deep red eyes, covered with glasses.

"I made you some coffee Kinoh, so wake up as soon as you can and meet me in the town square" Hiromu told Kinoh as she left the girl's apartment room.

"H-hey? What time is it? And when did you get back from the Orange Mermaid's kingdom?!" Kinoh exclaimed as her boss and best friend walked out the door.

"I'll tell you that later! Just wake up!" Hiromu yelled from down the corridor. Kinoh sighed and picked up plain white her coffee cup.

'_Always so busy that one…those princesses better find those other princesses soon, or Hiromu will die from stress" _Kinoh thought to herself, sipping the almost cold coffee.

After throwing her long myrtle green trench coat over her wrinkled work clothes from the previous day and slipping some thongs on, Kinoh ran outside her apartment and into the centre of the town. The entire town was bathed in an orange sheen from the setting sun.

"_I can tell why Hiromu was so impatient in waking me up, I must've been asleep for hours…" _Kinoh thought, flicking her short myrtle green hair back and walking over to where she spotted Hiromu.

"So, when did you get back?" Kinoh asked Hiromu, sitting on the fountain edge like Hiromu was.

"A few hours ago" Hiromu replied, adjusting her business suit's tie. Kinoh raised an eyebrow to what Hiromu was wearing, but didn't say anything about it.

"You should stop trying to look like a boy Kinoh" Hiromu said, catching a look at Kinoh's gender ambiguous outfit.

"Speak for yourself" Kinoh said, leading Hiromu to laugh and stand up.

"Do you want to know why I'm here and not looking after Seira?" Hiromu asked Kinoh, who nodded slightly.

"One reason is because I miss my part time job at the Basketball stadium" Hiromu started "Two is because I need to be on land for the operation's purpose…and three is because I missed you!" Hiromu laughed. Kinoh sighed and look at her friend.

"Quit hitting on me" Kinoh said with, trying to sound somewhat serious, but her slight smile gave it away that she didn't mean it. Hiromu laughed at that and sat back down.

"Today a mermaid turned into bubbles right here, as I was told" Hiromu said, her face turning serious. Kinoh felt her stomach go funny and shivers ran down her spine.

"Two girls were the only ones who stepped forward and completed the girl's wish, to be taken to her father" Hiromu continued.

"They were girls from the operation, right?" Kinoh asked.

"Obviously" Hiromu replied back "anyway, the girl was apparently called 'Chiho Doumoto'"

"Kaito Doumoto's daughter?" Kinoh asked, surprised. Hiromu nodded.

"That is a very vital lead, considering his relationship with Lucia, and the fact that he has children after Lucia disappeared, hinting that the woman could still be alive and in this town…" Hiromu started

"No, Lucia isn't in this town" Kinoh said, as she cut off Hiromu "The only person that is possibly a mermaid, other than you and Chiho, is Chiho's little sister and Houko"

"Houko?"

"Houko, from the cake shop near the ocean" Kinoh said, surprised that Hiromu didn't know the famous cake lady "Her adopted son Kojirou tells everyone the way they met was when Kojirou saw her staring at the ocean for 10 minutes". Hiromu raised her eyebrow and nodded.

"We should ask Houko, is her shop still open?" Hiromu asked

"No, it closes much earlier on Saturdays" Kinoh said, pushing herself off the fountain's edge and onto the street "I suggest we find out where the two princesses are and ask them…"

"No, we can't do that!" Hiromu exclaimed "If those two find out that I'm kind of stalking them, then the operation will fall apart!"

"Oh, is there some part of the operation that you keep secret from them?"

"Yes, there is, because if they know that then they won't have the courage to trust me in anything and I could possibly be kicked out of the Mermaid Kingdom forever!" Hiromu said bitterly. Kinoh raised her eyebrows at the last statement.

"Why is that a bad thing? Why are you so attached to a Kingdom that isn't even your home?" Kinoh asked, crossing her arms.

"I have my reasons" Hiromu sighed, straightening her tie again and walking toward Kinoh's apartment.

"I'm hungry; do you have any fresh food?" Hiromu asked, turning her head to face Kinoh.

"Yes, I have some carrots and lettuce" Kinoh replied, catching up with Hiromu, who was busy rolling her eyes.

"Yum, salad" Hiromu muttered sarcastically.

* * *

Suzumi looked down at her microwave dinner that was just placed in front of her and sighed. Kaito looked up from his dinner and laughed nervously.

"I haven't had a chance to send Shizu to the shops for ages, so this is all I have, sorry…" He said, earning a raised eyebrow from the aqua haired girl across the table from him.

"Why can't you do it?" she asked, dipping her fork into the mashed potato.

"Because I'm…kind of hiding…"

"Hiding?!"

"Yes, ever since Lucia disappeared I don't really want to reveal myself to the public, because the man that forced her to disappear could still be in this town, and I don't want to disappear and leave Shizu all by herself" Kaito replied sheepishly. Suzumi nodded and continued eating her dinner.

"Where did Sakura go anyway?" Kaito asked, looking out the small window of his apartment.

"Oh, to visit her father" Suzumi replied "And she was going to see where Shizu was". Kaito laughed at the last statement.

"She shouldn't bother, Shizu will come home when she feels like it" Kaito replied.

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Yes, but I have faith in her to return safely…it's all I can do when she's upset…"

"Why aren't you upset about Chiho?"

"Because…nah, I won't be sappy about that"

"C'mon, tell me!"

"Because I know she's in a better place"

"With Lucia?"

"Lucia?" Kaito exclaimed "What Chiho said before was a misunderstanding! Lucia isn't dead, Chiho was talking about that from where she is now she can see where Lucia is!"

"So where is Lucia?" Suzumi asked, completely changing the subject.

"I told you before, she's in hiding like the rest of the Princesses" Kaito replied "She's probably changed her name or changed her appearance…I know she's still alive because she send birthday presents to the girls every year"

"Oh" Suzumi said simply, finishing her meal.

"By the way, if you're looking for a place to stay, a room down the hall, 208, isn't being used, and I usually keep my stuff in there…" Kaito said, taking a key out of his pocket and placing it on the table.

"Really? Thanks!" Suzumi exclaimed, taking the key and bowing to the orange haired man in front of her before running off to the empty room. When she arrived, she was amazed by the amount of surfing gear that was stored there. The walls were lined with surf boards and the floor was littered with sand. There was a knock on the door and Kaito walked in the room.

"The bed is in the cupboard…have you ever slept on a futon?" Kaito asked, walking over to the cupboard.

"Nope, I've only been on land for four hours"

"Okay, would you mind getting the broom and cleaning up all this sand while I make the futon?"

"Okay, does Sakura need one?" Suzumi asked, picking up the broom from the corner of the room.

"If she does, I'll make her one…" Kaito replied, unfolding the futon in a sand free place and began to set up the sheets.

"You don't need to worry about that, I'll make it for her…"

"No, Shizu and Chiho were so independent; it's nice to do something for someone"

Suzumi was left in silence again. She never met anyone like him, she couldn't put her finger on why, but he seemed so different.

"Ah! Dad, where are you?" a faint voice called from down the hall.

"I'm in the extra room Shizu!" Kaito called, neatening the pillow and standing up. The thumping of Shizu's running was heard until she stopped in the doorway of the room.

"I've calmed down dad…Kojirou helped me" Shizu said simply. Suzumi was stunned at the lack of grief this family was having over Chiho's death.

"That's fantastic! And did you see the blonde haired girl who took Chiho home?" Kaito asked, walking over to Shizu.

"Yes, she said she had been looking for me and told me to go home right away" Shizu said in a monotone voice

"Do you know where she's spending the night?" Suzumi asked, continuing her sweeping job.

"Hmm? Yes, she's spending it with her father" Shizu replied, keeping her voice monotone. Kaito sighed.

"Well, the sun's gone down, I think it's best you do your homework now Shizu" Kaito said, ushering Shizu out of the room.

"How old is Shizu?" Suzumi asked, before Shizu was out of earshot.

"I'm nine" Shizu's muffled voice answered instead of Kaito. Kaito looked at the door and sighed.

"Has she always spoken that…blankly?" Suzumi asked, searching for the right word.

"Yes, she has" Kaito replied, looking somewhat disappointed that he had to tell Suzumi that "She's had quite a…dark personality for the past few years…probably thanks to Lucia 'abandoning' her" he sighed.

"Anyway, you're free to roam the town; you don't have to stay here" Kaito said, opening the door and leaving the room. Suzumi caught the door as it was closing and ran down the hall, down the flight of stairs and into the warm air of the night. Suzumi looked around, and then tried to trace her steps from back when they were taking Chiho to the apartment.

"I wonder how Roselle and everyone is coping back….down there" Suzumi asked the stars.

* * *

"Ha! I owned you! I owned you bad!" laughed Yukina, knocking over Roselle's king with her knight. Roselle then picked up all over her beaten chess pieces and threw them at Yukina, but all they did was start to float up towards the high ceiling of the centre of the Orange Castle. Roselle let them float up and hit her head on the small table they were playing on.

"That was your second try…you perfect Mary Sue…" Roselle cried, leading Yukina to laugh, and then stop in confusion.

"What's a Mary Sue?" she asked.

"Never mind…Mary Sue…" Roselle said, getting up and smirking.

"It's Yuki! Yuki I tell you!" Yuki cried.

Senna and Mayumi looked at the girls and sighed.

"It hasn't even been a day since they left and we're already bored" Mayumi sighed, looking at the rising black chess pieces "It feels like days since I woke Suzumi up and told her Seira was here this morning"

"It feels like hours instead of 'minutes', like Hiromu told us, since that advisor left…" Senna said, swimming over to where Roselle was sitting before she got up to get her chess pieces.

"Don't worry, she has random disappearances every now and then, she'll be back when she feels like it" Seira laughed, looking up from her book. The Princesses raised their eyebrows, but they continued talking about what they were talking about before.

From the highest window, which was pretty much on the ceiling, a young man was surveying the room below him. His long red hair floated in all different directions and his light blue eyes were squinting to see through the fog of his goggles

"She's not there…" he muttered through his breathing mask. He looked around at the kingdom below him, and then he found the roof with his legs and pushed off towards the surface.

"Worthless girl…" he thought furiously as he flew towards the surface "She's supposed to be with the other Princesses…"

* * *

Well. Did yoy enjoy the character development chapter :D

Anyway, soon I'll be assigned a hellava lot of assignments for Highschool, so this _might _be the last update for a while. I might slip an update in there, but from this week on my only computer time will have to be for homework or checking emails/forums ect.

So yeah, you can review and flame as much as you want now!


	7. Farewells of Life

Ohshit! I'm back!

Aha, anyway! After, what, 3 months of procrastinating, I'm back with a new chapter.

Disclaimer: I own Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. NOT /Borat

* * *

"Shizu?..." Kaito called out as he opened the door to his apartment.

"Yeah, what is it?" Shizu's small, attitude-full voice called out. Kaito wasn't surprised to see her leaning by the pantry, a large scowl on her small face with equally large tears dripping of her cheeks.

"Aww, Shizu…" Kaito said softly, opening his arms and hoping his daughter wouldn't push him away. Luckily, Shizu needed his comfort, and ran straight into his arms.

"How do you expect me to do _homework_ after _today_?!" she sobbed, falling down to the floor.

"I didn't…" Kaito whispered softly, kneeling down with her.

* * *

"Check mate!" Hiromu laughed sneakily, as she knocked Kinoh's white king into the air. The girl opposite her grabbed the flying king and put it in the pile of her defeated players.

"Nice reflexes!" Hiromu laughed, taking a sip of her ginger ale.

"Thanks" Kinoh said quietly, packing away the chess board into her small cupboard of board games. Hiromu got up and stood behind her, looking through the shelves of classic family games.

"What games haven't we played tonight?" Hiromu asked, taking a big gulp of ginger ale.

"None…you tried too hard to distract me from making salad" Kinoh said, causing Hiromu to laugh heartily.

"It's your fault that you spend 19 hours at the Basketball arena everyday, and not buy good, tasteful food" Hiromu said, stressing the 'good' and 'tasteful' parts of her sentence. Kinoh sighed in irritation, letting Hiromu know that she had gone past the point of plain teasing her. Hiromu sat back down on the floor of their apartment. It was unsurprisingly clean, knowing that Kinoh probably spends her 5 free hours of the day cleaning.

"So-uh…do you want to go out to the shops and buy something, preferably food?" Hiromu asked. Kinoh raised an eyebrow.

"At 8:00 at night?"

"There's a 7/11 in this town! Albeit it's on the other side of town, but we always need exercise!" Hiromu said. Kinoh could never say 'no' to Hiromu's arguments, so the two found their wallets and made their energetic way outside. The fountain about 50 metres away had been turned off, and the square sounded very quiet.

"So, I'll let you lead me the way to the 7/11" Kinoh said simply, one hand on her hip and the other waving in a random direction. Hiromu laughed nervously, and set out to the beach area of the town.

* * *

Suzumi snapped back into real life by the sound of footsteps behind her, leading to the apartment. She turned around quickly to find two blue haired people walking towards the apartment building. They walked past Suzumi, giving Suzumi a good look at them, a woman around her early 30s and a boy only a couple of years older than her. Suzumi shrugged it off, until the woman noticed her and shook her shoulder to catch her attention.

"I love your pendant! Where did you get it?!" the woman asked, her eyes sparkling with envy and excitement.

"I've had it since I was born…it means I'm a Princes…" Suzumi started, and then she covered her mouth and mentally winced. The woman's face went slightly serious.

"Oh, I see…" the woman said, contemplating what to say next. She smirked ever so slightly, saying "Of what ocean?" Suzumi dropped her hand and stared at the woman and quickly conjured up an excuse.

"What are you talking about? It's impossible to be a Princess of an ocean!" Suzumi stuttered, looking to the ground. The boy next to the woman shrugged and went inside the building, leaving the pair alone. The woman waved him goodbye and glanced over to Suzumi, who was obviously sweating.

"I guess you're right" the woman said, flicking back her short, dark blue hair "I hope you have a nice time in our humble little town, princess!" she chanted, walking into the apartment building. Suzumi sighed in relief, and then took off towards the beach, wanting to distance herself from the woman ASAP.

"_Oh my gosh…that was so close…who was she? She looks so familiar…" _Suzumi thought, weaving between the alleys of the town and into the square. She jogged over to the fountain and leaned against its side, panting.

"_Gosh I hate this! I want to go home…"_ Suzumi thought, catching her breath. Suddenly, a familiar memory came to her mind _"Roselle was right…it isn't as beautiful as Meru said…"_ She thought, about to cry. She caught her breath quickly, and she ran back to the ocean.

"_Sakura can do this on her own…I'm leaving!" _Suzumi thought, throwing in the towel and arriving at the ocean. The cold spray tickled her bare legs, and the salty smell was comforting. She kicked off her clunky shoes, and made her way to the ocean's edge.

She took a deep breathe, and dived into the water. She instantly changed back into her more comfortable mermaid form and took a breath of relief for being back in the water.

At least, that's what she would've done, if a large figure didn't break through the surface of the water and scare Suzumi to fall over. She squinted to make out the shape of the object, and noticed it was a man with long hair. He glared at Suzumi, and took a step towards her.

"Who the fuck are you?" he spat at her, taking off his diving mask. He seemed to be peeved off at something, and it made Suzumi want to go home even more.

"Suzumi Paaku…" Suzumi whispered. He raised his eyebrow.

"Oh, so you're one of those mermaid chicks?" he said, seeming to have calmed down. Suzumi nodded slowly, and the man walked towards her. He looked fairly young and had very handsome features, along with beautiful blue eyes, that were clouded by anger.

"I'm terribly sorry for being so rude and foul mouthed before…" he said, extending a gloved hand "let me help you up!" he said, much gentler than before. Suzumi nodded, and took the hand and was pulled up.

It all happened in one fast movement. He whipped out a gun and pointed it at Suzumi's head. He smiled maliciously as he saw the slow look of realisation on Suzumi's face.

"See ya in hell, mermaid!" He laughed "Let's see how Ms Tanake likes it when she sees you dead!" he yelled, pulling the trigger. Suzumi only managed to utter 'You mean Hiro…' before the loud bang triggered her into absolute darkness.

* * *

"See, Kinoh! I told you there was a 7/11' Hiromu said, her deep voice laughing as she pointed to the neon sign above the two. The salty smelling breeze had been blowing lightly, and they could clearly hear the crashing of the waves

"I never said there wasn't" Kinoh said, walking inside the store. Hiromu smiled slightly as she followed the girl into the small convenience store. While Hiromu headed to the meat section, Kinoh made her way to the vegetable section, just to spite her meat-loving roommate. Hiromu caught this movement out of the corner of her eye and spun around and walked over to Kinoh, grabbed the back of her coat and pulled her over to the meat section. Kinoh let out a chuckle as Hiromu let her go and started to choose out her favourite lamb chops.

"Ah" Hiromu sighed, smelling the meat "it's nice to be out of the place where all you eat is seafood and you don't drink anything". Kinoh rolled her eyes.

"Why do you live there, then?' Kinoh asked, knowing the answer already.

"It's my business" Hiromu said, with a large armful of meat "Now; I'll buy all of this, while you can wait outside". Kinoh nodded and quickly walked outside. She lent against the window next to the automatic door. You couldn't exact say it was quiet, with the wind blowing in her ears and the waves crashing in a very thunderous manner, but the silence was nothing compared to the ear splitting sound of a gun blast.

Kinoh, out of old habit, drew her concealed gun and pointed it at the source of the noise. Soon, Hiromu and the store's clerk came crashing out of the store, and spotted Kinoh with her gun drawn.

"Kinoh!" Hiromu exclaimed "Don't shoot at random things!". Kinoh sighed in frustration.

"It wasn't me! It's just a habit!" she yelled, and hid her gun again and ran down to the source of the shooting, followed by Hiromu and the clerk. Kinoh stopped in her tracks as she neared the body, the lifeless body, of a young girl. Hiromu took out her mobile phone to illuminate the area.

"Shit!" Hiromu exclaimed as she recognised the body of Suzumi. Kinoh winced as she saw the bloody state of the girl.

"She must've been stabbed several times when we were arguing…" Kinoh hypothesised. Hiromu didn't care, as her face seemed to be wearing a familiar 'I-am-going-to-be-so-stressed-sorting-this-out' expression. Kinoh put a comforting arm around Hiromu, as she noticed a small piece of paper on Suzumi's bloody stomach. She bent down to grab it, but Hiromu snatched it up before her and took a look at it before tearing it into pieces and throwing them into the sea.

"What was that?" Kinoh asked, but was rudely ignored as Hiromu kicked a seashell off into the distance and turned to the store clerk.

"You, help me with the body will you? It's of a friend of mine" she snapped. The clerk nodded, but looked queasy at the sight of Suzumi. Kinoh helped lift her limp body silently.

"Bloody Eamon" Hiromu bitterly muttered in a barely audible whisper "always making things hard for me…"

* * *

Oh yes.

I went there. I went there and brought back cake BD.


	8. Returns of Suprise

Oh Em Gee. An update that _isn't_ 4 months away from the last?

Disclaimer: I _am _Michiko Yokote. Really. This story is now canon, and it'll hit the Japanese TV screens sometime late this year. Only not (I do not own Mermaid Melody, incase there are some lawyers after me and didn't think thsi disclaimer is good enough)

* * *

Shizu leant against a jewellery shop's window, watching Sakura obsess over a certain necklace on display to her boyfriend. 

"Ooooh! Noburu! That necklace is gorgeous…" Sakura gasped, the tip of her nose lightly pressed against the cool glass. Noburu, Sakura's boyfriend, chuckled.

"If you want, me and Shizu can buy it for you" He chuckled, waking Shizu out of her bored daze.

"What?! I am _not_ spending my money on a necklace that'll just rust when you go swimming!" Shizu said, making sure she didn't give too much away to Noburu, but she gave Sakura the idea of why she shouldn't buy. Sakura pouted and lifted her face off the glass.

"It won't rust! It's brass! It won't rust!" Sakura cried.

"Fine, Hanara, I'll buy it…" Shizu started, then glared at Noburu "And Noburu will help" Shizu finished, fishing out her purse. Sakura jumped in glee, and then stopped.

"Wait, who's Hanara?" Sakura asked. Shizu sighed and handed Sakura half of what the necklace was worth.

"Hanabi Sakura…Ring any bells?" Shizu said, raising her eyebrows at Noburu to hand over his share. Sakura nodded happily.

"It's Hana from Hanabi and Ra from Sakura put together…right?" Sakura asked, getting a nod from Shizu and the rest of the money from Noburu. She then rushed inside the shop to buy her prized necklace.

"Do you always make such weird names, Douzu?" Noburu asked, making a crack at Shizu.

"Yup, I have Haburou for my friend Kojirou Habuke, Habuko for Houko Habuke, and if that Suzumi person was still around then I'd find a nickname for her…" Shizu said, trailing off when she heard a voice.

"Well, find a nickname for me then!" A familar dark blue haired girl called, popping in front of the two.

"Suzumi!? Where've you been!?" Shizu exclaimed, crossing her arms like a worried mother. Suzumi smirked and placed her hands on her hips and spread her legs apart slightly.

"Why the hell does that matter! All that matters is that this motherfucker is back in business! On that weird-ass operation Hiro-something set me!" Suzumi exclaimed punching the air.. Shizu raised her eyebrows.

"Did you fall in a ditch and lose your memory and personality or something?" Shizu asked, surveying Suzumi. Her hair was considerably shorter and darker, and instead of reaching the bottom of her neck; it was cut into a hairstyle that went with Noburu's typical boy haircut. She was wearing worn out blue sneakers, cargo jeans, with pockets stuffed with 'cargo' a white t-shirt with a dark green jacket over it.

"What happened to that pink shirt and jean miniskirt? And your hair?..." Shizu asked, in disbelief.

"Hell knows…" Suzumi laughed, then took out her mp3 player and plugged in the earphones.

"So, what are you guys doing?" Suzumi yelled over her music. Shizu shrugged, and looked inside the shop to see Sakura trying on her prized necklace. Suzumi was busy dancing and playing the air guitar to her music. Noburu sent a look to Shizu.

"What happened to the 'she's quiet, but very nice and polite, although a bit clueless and curious at times' personality Sakura kept going on about for the last week when she's been gone?" Noburu asked. Shizu shrugged and shook her head. Sakura then came bursting out of the shop, necklace around her neck, and ran over to Suzumi to hug her. Suzumi just jumped back.

"Whoa, hands off the merchandise!" Suzumi shouted over her music, then took out her mp3 player and changed songs.

"Ugh, I hate 'Hare Hare Yukai'" Suzumi muttered as she skipped the song "What was I thinking…" she bitterly muttered. Sakura did a double take in disbelief.

"She kept saying it was her favourite song when were in India!" Sakura gasped. Shizu looked at Suzumi in disbelief and shook her head.

"Oi, Suzumi, we're going to get lunch!" Shizu yelled to Suzumi. Suzumi looked up and pulled a face.

"No need to yell…geez, I can hear" Suzumi said, turning up the volume. Shizu just shook her head and walked over to 'Cinnamon Blossoms'. Suzumi joined them, singing 'I was made to hit in America' and clapping her hands along with her music.

* * *

The white and green bus travelled through the hills, occasionally running over potholes in that poorly constructed road. Kinoh clutched her stomach as she stared out the window. Hiromu patted her back subconsciously as she chatted to one of the members of the basketball team they were riding with. The Austin Power's theme weakly blasted through the radio as they hit another pothole. 

"Really Hiromu, what kept you so long from coming back?" the young man asked her. Hiromu let out one of her famous hearty laughs and looked out the window.

"Oh Kouta…its family matters…" Hiromu laughed. Kouta raised his eyebrows.

"I thought you were orphaned and grew up in an orphanage…" Kouta asked. Hiromu nodded.

"Exactly" she said. Kouta brightened up.

"Oh, so you found your family!?" He asked. Hiromu nodded.

"In a way…" she laughed. Kouta congratulated Hiromu as the bus pulled to a stop.

"Everybody get off the bus…I've gotta clean up some spew…" the bus driver droned. Hiromu looked over to the floor under Kinoh.

"Oh" Hiromu said with disgust, screwing her face up as she led Kinoh off the bus. Kinoh rolled her eyes as everyone piled off. The area outside was very rainy and windy, so everyone just stood on the right side of the bus, where the almost horizontal rain didn't reach them. The team gathered around Kinoh and asked if she was okay. Kinoh smiled and kept replying 'yes' to every question.

Soon enough, the team got bored of doting on Kinoh and decided to count how many sheep were in the paddock opposite them. Kinoh slumped down and sat on the road and groaned.

"We need a new road" she groaned rubbing her temple. Hiromu laughed nervously.

"So, Kinoh, how do you think Suzumi's doing back in that little town?" Hiromu asked Kinoh.

"She's probably gotten shot again" Kinoh said. Hiromu pouted.

"Seriously, do you think she's okay?" Hiromu asked.

"Probably" Kinoh replied. Kouta looked at Hiromu, asking for an explanation. Hiromu scratched her head and looked at Kouta.

"Suzumi is my, uh, cousin, and she broke her arm last week…" Hiromu said. Kouta nodded and dropped the subject, opting to conjure a conversation about the week's basketball game. Kinoh listened, but her mind was on another thing…

* * *

"Welcome to Cinnamon Blossoms!" Kojirou said as the group of four walked through the door "Shizu! Noburu! How are you?" Kojirou asked. Shizu shrugged as she ignored Suzumi's annoying heavy metal music. Kojirou smiled nervously as she noticed Suzumi having an all out air guitar solo. 

"So, what can I do for you?" Kojirou asked. Sakura stepped up and looked through the glass display.

"Can I have a…meat pastry?" Sakura asked. Shizu and Noburu added that they'd like one too. Kojirou nodded and wrote them down.

"I assume your rock star friend would like a pastry too?" Kojirou laughed. Shizu nodded and watched Kojirou ring a bell and slip in their order through a slit in the wall.

"Take a seat, you guys…" Kojirou said, pointing to two couches to the right of the shop. Everyone sat down, except Suzumi.

"Aw! Fuckin' hell! My mp3 ran out of batteries!" Suzumi cried. She looked at Kojirou.

"Hey, do you sell batteries?" Suzumi asked. Kojirou shook his head. Suzumi sighed angrily.

"Fuck…well, do you have any batteries you can sell?" Suzumi asked. Kojirou nodded and handed Suzumi some double A batteries.

"That'll be $2:00" he said. Suzumi punched the air and handed over the money and inserted the batteries in her mp3 player. She turned it on and scrolled to her favourite song.

"Thanks man! You're a fuckin' hero!" Suzumi laughed and she walked over to the couch and fell onto it. Shizu was still confused, but she left the subject.

"So, who are your friends, Noburu?" Kojirou asked.

"Suzumi and Sakura…and how do you know me?" Noburu asked. Kojirou made a little 'o' shape with his mouth.

"I'm your sister's boyfriend" Kojirou said, taking out a picture of him and Atsuna.

"Oh, you're that boyfriend she hates!" Noburu laughed "Sorry, but she's got two other ones…she says you're not sexual enough!" Kojirou winched.

"Well, she was pretty damn pushy…" Kojirou said "Anyway, Suzumi, aren't you a Princess? Houko told me about meeting you". Suzumi didn't seem to notice so Kojirou kept talking to her, so he skipped the subject and focussed on giving them their freshly cooked meat pastries.

"Have a good day!" Kojirou farewelled the group as they left the shop. He slumped back to his usual position and continued to watch the sun slowly set.

"So, back to the beginning with Atsuna, hmm?" Houko laughed, walking out from behind the door. Kojirou sighed.

"She was a slut to begin with…I was always so busy with this job…" Kojirou sulked. Houko frowned.

"Sorry I'm robbing you of your life, Kojirou…I had a lot of burden on my shoulders when I was your age…heck, even younger!" Houko said. Kojirou shrugged.

"I don't care, I'm happy this way…" Kojirou laughed sadly. Houko just shook her head and headed back into the kitchen, leaving Kojirou in his thoughts.

* * *

No author notes this time. Nothing much to say for this chapter. It's more of a 'setting up chapter' 

And the two songs I reffered to, 'Hit in the USA' and the Austin Power's theme is a reference to what I was listening to when I wrote this XD. I heart Beck and Austin Powers.


	9. Women of Mystery

So, Imma back with another chapter, which honestly is my longest chapter to date. I'm happy with it too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. But, if I was Maxim, I'd be saying 'It's _Lively Pitch,_ then _Mermaid Melody, _not all this Japanese 'Pichi Pichi' crap! Especially with Mermaid Melody first! It's the subtitle of the series!". Yes, I have been hanging around SPPF/BMGF too much. Kudos to all who get the reference

Now, enjoy Umi, chapter 9!

* * *

"_Hey…it's me again…"_

"_Oh, you're back?"_

"_I was never gone"_

"_Whatever, get to the damn point!"_

"_You're, well, not exactly doing it right"_

"_What?!"_

"_You're too loud…too impolite…just calm down, and try to act more like a stereotypical princess…like in all those fairy tales!"_

"_I'm _not_ going to be a poser"_

"_Please? For the sake, of well, everything that should matter!"_

"_But things that matter to me are very different to yours"_

"_Geez! Just do it! You're messing it all up! I would've never asked you to do this for me if you were going to act this way!"_

"_Wow, if you're going to get _this _angry, I'll do it!"_

"_Thank you!..."_

And with a small smile exchanged between the two aqua haired girls, the dream faded out.

* * *

"Hey! Guess what guys!" Suzumi exclaimed, bounding into Cinnamon Blossoms. Sakura, Noburu, Shizu, Kojirou and even Houko, who were lounging around inside, looked up. Little sounds of 'hmm?' and 'yeah?' arose from them, and Suzumi smiled triumphantly. 

"I bought tickets for _all _of us to go to tomorrow's basket ball game, in the next town, so you all have no excuses to go!" Suzumi cackled, knowing that Sakura and Shizu had no liking for sport whatsoever. However…

"Oh, me a Noburu have a date that night…" Sakura said nervously, nudging Noburu.

"O-oh, yeah, we do, sorry Suzumi-chan" Noburu said, catching on.

"As you know, Kaito won't let me leave the house" Shizu said, pointing out the obvious. Suzumi turned to Houko and Kojirou.

"And lame excuses from you two?" Suzumi asked, getting two heads shaking.

"Great! Now I have three damn tickets left! Who do I invite?!" Suzumi exclaimed, sitting down.

"I'll be happy to go" A smooth, unknown voice said. The group turned to a man who just walked through the door.

"You see, my, uh, girlfriend works there, and I haven't seen her for so long…" The man continued to say. It was silent for a bit, when Suzumi spoke up.

"Okay, first, that was really creepy, in several ways…" Suzumi started, a pretend shiver going down her spine "secondly, sure! I'd love to reunite old lovers!" The man smiled and held out his hand to be shaken.

"I'm Eamon!" He said earnestly, taking off his sunglasses and revealing dazzling blue eyes, which looked strange with his long red hair. Suzumi raised her eyes a bit at his appearance.

"Aren't you…?" she asked, but she then dropped the subject and turned to everyone else.

"So, I'll just be heading out to Shizu's place to get Mr Kaito to stop being such a fucking agoraphobic and get outside and watch basketball!" Suzumi said, walking out of the room. She quickly returned and sighed.

"I'm sorry that I used a bad word around you guys!" she said very quickly, then jogged back to Kaito's apartment. Shizu followed in suite, worrying what Suzumi would say to get her father to go outside.

"Now that I think of it, Kaito probably does have agoraphobia…the fear of going outside" Houko laughed, looking at Kojirou's expression at the new word "He's changed so much, god…" Houko laughed.

"You knew Mr Kaito before I met Shizu and Chiho last year?" Kojirou asked, leaning forward on the glass display cabinet

"Duh, where have you been? We were friends when we were Suzumi's age!" Houko laughed. Everyone looked surprised at that statement.

"_Really?_ I thought you knew each other through the kids!" Kojirou exclaimed.

"Nup, we go way back! He was my best friend's lover!" Houko said, laughing until she became aware of Eamon's lingering presence.

"Oh! Did you want to order anything?!" Houko exclaimed, realising he must've been there for a reason.

"Yes, of course!" Eamon said, eyeing Houko.

"_I've found you!" _He thought triumphantly, a smirk tugging at his lips as he ordered his food.

* * *

A small bus pulled up infront of Cinnamon Blossoms. Houko and Suzumi jumped out of it and stood infront of the small crowd of basketball ticket holders, ready for a hellish car ride and a not so exciting basketball game. How Suzumi convinced them to go was a wonder. 

"Look! We hired a mini-bus! Now we can fit all six of you!" Suzumi exclaimed, waving her arms around at the bus "It's so gorgeous! Look at the engine guys!" Suzumi said, running around the front and lifting up the hood. Everyone ignored her and boarded the bus, thanking Houko for getting the bus for them. Suzumi put down the lid and pouted, muttering about how no one liked motors these days.

When everyone was seated, Suzumi stepped up front on grabbed the microphone, since the bus was usually used for tours.

"Okay! Roll call!" Suzumi exclaimed "Houko? Kojirou? Shizu? Kaito? Eamon?" she called, getting a 'hear' or 'yes' from everyone of her called out names. She put the microphone down, then picked it up again.

"This thing is _so_ damn cool! I call it for the entire trip!" Suzumi cried "Lalalalalala! This is so cool!" Suzumi laughed. When Shizu asked to have a turn, Suzumi hugged the microphone protectively, saying "No touching!".

The rest of the ride was hellish. Everyone was tired of Suzumi's voice, everyone joined in when they had to tape her mouth, everyone felt sick at one point and everyone celebrated when they reached the stadium at five in the afternoon.

"Shizu needs to go to the toilet, so I'll take her!" Suzumi exclaimed as she jumped off the top step of the bus, pulling Shizu down with her. Shizu opened her mouth in disagreement, but Suzumi disregarded it and pulled her towards the female toilets, lining up with at least thirty other people. The older passengers exchanged glances of amusement, then hopped out of the bus themselves

"Ah! So exciting! A basketball game!" Houko said, trying to lift the spirits of motion sickness victims behind her. Kaito put on a small smile, still nervous about being outside while Eamon scanned the pamphlet that was just handed to him by a young, silent young woman with myrtle green hair.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed. Houko and Kaito, who were about to start a conversation with each other, spun around and asked 'what?!' in the same worried tone.

"My girlfriend isn't the announcer this game!" he cried "It's…Kinoh Wren!". Houko put her arm around his shoulder.

"No worries! Just enjoy the game!" Houko exclaimed, attempted to lift the man's spirit up. Kojirou, who just woke up from his nap, jumped out of the bus and looked around.

"So, what's happened?" he asked. Eamon straightened up and put on a collected smile.

"Oh, don't worry, my girlfriend isn't in the game after all' Eamon said, faking his sadness. Kojirou made a 'tsk' like sound.

"Well, that's no good…I'm going through girlfriend troubles, if that's any consolation!" Kojirou offered. Eamon smiled politely.

"Thank you for your comfort!" he said, while thinking 'Like I care, dipshit' at the same time. Kojirou smiled nervously, wondering what to say in this company, but Shizu came marching up to Kaito.

"Suzumi just dissed you!" She stated, crossing her arms "She said you were 'effing annoying outside of your dump of a house'". Kaito laughed nervously.

"I'll, uh, try not to be 'annoying'" Kaito said, scratching his head. Shizu rolled her eyes.

"I agree with her you know…you should grow a backbone!" she half-yelled. Kaito mentally winced at this insult. Thankfully, nobody had to bear an awkward silence, as Suzumi came bounding up from the toilets.

"Fuckin' hell Shizu! You scared the living shit outta me!" Suzumi yelled, crossing her arms and imitating Shizu's tone "Don't disappear randomly, okay?!". Houko giggled quietly, then took the tickets out of her pocket and started walking towards the entrance of the stadium.

"It's 10 minutes until the game, let's get going!" Houko chanted half-impatiently. The rest of the group followed suit. As they all lined up, Houko turned to Kaito, who was behind her, and started up a conversation.

"So, remember me?" She said, flashing a smile. Kaito squinted for a second, scratched his head, stroked his chin in bemusement, and then smiled confidently.

"Of course I do, Hanon" he said putting a hand on her shoulder "how could I forget _you_ of all people!'. Kojirou and Suzumi, who were busy competing in a tension-filled rock-paper-scissors tournament, looked at the two adults with mouths agape.

"W-w-w-what?!" Suzumi gasped in pure amazement "You're _Hanon_. _The Hanon who knew Kaito when he was 14 or something?_". She went berserk when Hanon nodded.

"HOLY SHIT! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU!?" Suzumi yelled in anger and amazement, attracting many stares "FUCKIN'… YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS BACK TO YOUR KINGDOM NOW, DAMMIT!". Hanon stared on with surprised eyes, and suddenly burst into laughter.

"I knew it! You _were_ the new Princess!" she laughed, hugging Suzumi "Oh gosh! It's so nice to meet you!". Suzumi was the surprised one this time, then slipped out of Hanon's hug the same time that Hanon let go.

"Whoa…wow" Kojirou said, raising his eyebrows at the situation "Any explanation Houko?.". Hanon giggled and moved forward in the line.

"Nope! Not now at least!" she chanted, being unaware of two huge reactions of the new revelation around her. Eamon was twitching, almost violently, holding himself back from grabbing Hanon and choking or kidnapping her. Conflicting thoughts along the lines of 'Calm down and act civil' and 'Kill the sneaking bitch!' ran through his head.

About 10 metres away, however, the pamphlet holding, myrtle haired girl dropped the pile of pamphlets in her arms. She whipped out her cell phone and dialled her most dialled number.

"Hiro-I mean, Ms Tanake…I don't care that you're busy! I found Hanon!" She shouted into the phone, receiving a yelp of accomplishment from the other end.

"Give her the letter, you dope!" Hiromu cried from the other side of the phone "I need to meet her now!". Kinoh nodded and hung up. She stepped over her dropped pamphlets and made her way to Hanon, drawing out an envelope.

"Hanon, your highness…" Kinoh started, holding out the envelope "Please read this" she said, bowing and handing over the envelope.

"Bwuh…Rina?" Hanon said, taking the envelope. Kinoh shook her head and smiled for the first time in days.

"No, my name is Ms Wren, and not Ms Touin…I didn't change it in a poor attempt of trying to disguise myself, either" Kinoh said, smirking as she turned around and made her way back to her, now crumpled and dirty, pamphlets.

"Uh, wow…" Hanon said, pocketing the envelope "She's not that much like Rina…but man, does she act like her!" Hanon laughed to Kaito. Kaito shrugged in agreement, still confused. Kojirou looked at Kaito, begging for an explanation that might be straightforward, but Kaito just shrugged at him too. Shizu, however, sighed.

"Am I the only one who wants to skip the basketball game and just…go home?" Shizu asked, rubbing at her eye "Or at least stay at a hotel?...". Several hands went up, all except Eamon and Suzumi's.

"What?! But I want to see a game!" Suzumi cried, crossing her arms. When everyone turned to Eamon to hear his reason, he just fished around in his pockets, handed Suzumi the amount his ticket cost, and walked off.

"What a weirdo…" Suzumi said, pocketing the money "He was probably after Shizu or something…" Shizu jumped back a bit from Eamon.

"Creep…" the young girl muttered, shivering at Suzumi's suspicion.

Finding no reason to stay and wanting many questions answered, the group sold their tickets to a group of poor college students wanting to get in, the piled up in the mini-bus and started to the nearest hotel.

* * *

"Houko…care to explain?" Kojirou asked the moment the kind woman from the hotel left their room. Hanon rolled her eyes. 

"Fine" she said, sitting down on the nearest sofa "In short, I'm a former princess. The princess of _what _exactly is up to you to find out". Kojirou screwed up his face for a moment.

"No idea…I'm just taking a wild stab in the dark, but…a mermaid princess?" Kojirou asked.

"Bingo!" Suzumi exclaimed. Shizu seemed slightly surprised.

"So, you knew my mother?" Shizu asked, curious.

"Ayup! We knew all the other Princesses too!" Hanon said leaning forwards "And Kaito, who's a special little prince!" Kaito nodded, feeling much more comfortable inside.

"I'm a prince of the Panthalassa clan" Kaito said, not all that proudly. Shizu had a great look of disdain on her face.

"So, what you're saying is that I'm not human _at all_?" Shizu groaned.

"Now, Shizu!" Kaito said, shaking the girl's shoulder "Does that matter? Not to anyone here!". Shizu didn't answer, but still looked disdained.

"I, infact, feel very…plain at the moment…don't go complaining about being special in any way…" Kojirou said, a tone of bitterness.

"Oh for gods sakes! You're all being stupid about this!" Suzumi snorted "Complaining about being and not being human…I need to listen to what Hanon needs to say!"

"Need? You're just curious like everyone else!" Kojirou snapped.

"Shut up, fucker!" Suzumi yelled, holding her fist in the air "Dammit, I _need_ this information! It's vital for our kingdom!".

"Shut up Suzumi!" Shizu said, pushing her way past Kaito to stare up at Suzumi "Quit acting like you're the only one here who wants to know! So just be quiet, you idiot! You're not living your spoilt princess life anymore!"

"Hah!" Suzumi scoffed, beginning to get pissed off "Spoilt Princess life? Living isolated from everyone else in the kingdom, with nobody to keep my company but my assistant? You're fucking clueless!"

"Oh, be quiet! Don't speak to a child that way!" Hanon yelled, leaning against her palm.

"Suzumi, you don't need to know anymore! I'm a mermaid princess, I'm not anymore, Suzumi is, and that's all you are allowed to know about this situation!" Hanon finished up. Everyone seemed quiet.

"Please? I can get everyone out of the room! Hanon, please I need to know!" Suzumi said weakly.

"No, me and all the other Princesses sworn to secrecy when we left" Hanon said "I explained it all in that letter I sent you, even though I was the only one who said everything to their replacement…why are you even questioning me?"

"What letter?" Suzumi asked blankly, bored of the conversation now that she knew that she'd get no information.

"You know? The letter I sent before you were born? I told you every reason!" Hanon asked, getting a bit concerned.

"Ummm" Suzumi thought, looking alarmed and startled "I…I'm not sure" she said "You must've sent it to the wrong person…actually…yeah, you did". Hanon groaned.

"What are you talking about? I sent it to the Kingdom, not just one person!" Hanon asked "Spill, Suzumi! There's been something up with you ever since you've reappeared!". Suzumi looked at her hands, which were digging into her skin and leaving small nail marks, guiltily. It was silent for a minute, until Suzumi looked up confidentially.

"I will when you tell!" she said, winking playfully.

"Fine! I'll only tell when you find at least two other Princesses!" Hanon said, shaking hands with a now enthusiastic Suzumi.

"Ha! Sakura and I have to leave in two days anyway!" Suzumi said "Not our problem anymore!". Hanon and everyone looked disappointed.

"Really? Why?" Shizu asked, sitting down next to her father.

"I'll only spill when Hanon does!" Suzumi said, winking. Hanon smirked, then turned serious.

"Now, everyone, listen" she said, making sure everyone was listening intently "Never, _ever_ call me Hanon again…saying that infront of Eamon, a stranger, was risky enough! My name is Houko Habuke, and not Hanon Hoshou!" when everyone nodded, Hanon stood up and went towards the door.

"Sleep up everyone, I'll be back soon…I need to go meet someone" Hanon said. Everyone chanted "Night, Houko!" to confirm that they got her message, as she closed the door and ran downstairs, zipping up her jacket and pulling up her hoodie, ready to drive back to the stadium in the rain.

* * *

"Hanon-sama!" a strong, confident voice drawled "I was getting a tad impatient!" 

"Hiromu-sama…you've always been impatient" a cool voice responded.

"Touché…" Hiromu replied, putting out her hand to shake with Hanon. Hanon took it, gave it a firm shake, then let go. The shadows from the small wall light that was above the two left the two with the right sides of their faces in shadows. The light kept flashing like a fire, allowing the shadows to move as they willed.

"You're hand's awfully cold…have you became such a distant being from any kind of species that you lost your blood temperature?" Hanon said, slipping the snide remark. Hiromu's face grew from sarcastically amused to hurt.

"I'd prefer not to talk about that, Hanon…" Hiromu sniffed, suddenly retaining her amused face "I want to talk about you"

"I know, you want me to come back? Are you tired of that boisterous Suzumi ruling that kingdom?"

"She hasn't ruled anything"

"But she's 13, no?"

"_That_ Suzumi's 14"

"So there's two Suzumis?"

"There's one Suzumi!" Hiromu said, feeling quite irate "Quit changing the subject!"

"Fine, Hiromu, but get to the point"

"I don't want you to come back…I want you to stay where you are until we find the other princesses. But, my assistant, Ms Wren, said that she saw you with _this_ man" Hiromu said, holding put a picture of a younger Eamon.

"Yes, I lent him some tickets so he could see his girlfriend, who was an announcer…"

"Fuck him! He's trying to _kill_ us, Hanon!" Hiromu said, looking panicked "He came that close to getting me _and_ you…he heard you say you were Hanon Hoshou!"

"And?"

"Hanon…" Hiromu pleaded, putting her hands on Hanon's shoulders "Please, go into hiding, like Kaito…I heard you live in the same place as Kaito does…please, stay with him!"

"I will, I have no intention of dying…but answer me this Hiromu"

"Yes?"

"Why do you care so much about us? You don't belong to our world, yet you try to run it perfectly and you care so much for every one of us…even if that's made you give up so much and get angry when we mess up, even though you want the best for us…like a mother?" Hanon said, her question turning into almost mindless blabber.

Hiromu looked down at the ground, taking a step back from Hanon, and smiled bitterly.

"Because…I once loved a mermaid…and I wanted to do everything I could for her kingdom and life…no matter how fast she was dying…" Hiromu laughed bitterly

"I'm still confused...but I'm sure you have reasons" Hanon said, giving Hiromu a quick one armed hug before turning towards the rain.

"I'll see you again, Hiromu!" Hanon laughed, flashing a quick smile before dashing through the rain and into the bus. Hiromu watched her drive away until she could no longer pick out the lights of Hanon's bus from all the other cars on the busy highway.

"Estrella-chan…" Hiromu laughed lightly, slumping down and leaning against the brick back wall of the stadium. She gazed at the rain that was bucketing down, before turning her attention to Kinoh, who was running towards her, telling her something about not sitting in the rain like a hobo.

"Estrella-chan, I've done your daughter well, haven't I?" Hiromu whispered, before standing up to go greet Kinoh.

* * *

So. Long. ''

No matter, hope you enjoyed the story and will give me some nice reviews and concrit. Not flames though. I want to save my laughter for 'The Black Adder'.


	10. Meetings of Interest

Well, I've changed the summary, a task I've wanted to do for a while.

No matter, this took a while to do. I kept getting writers block.

Also, I apologise if the increasing length of the chapters is getting annoying. I have alot to write...and the story isn't even halfway finished. If I was going by my plan at the beginning of this story, this thing would be at it's climax by now. Yay for my foreshadowing/slow pacing! (srsly, I've foreshadowed so many things in this story...)

Disclaimer: I don't own Mermaid Melody. I also don't have something witty to say along with this.

* * *

"Breakfast!" a small voice called from the stove as Suzumi walked in the Doumoto apartment. The people who were already in the room were all looking weary and muttered greetings to Suzumi. Suzumi pulled up a chair from the corner of the room and placed it next in between Hanon and Kojirou. 

"Morning all!" Suzumi yawned as she stretched. The small window to her right showed that the sun had only just risen, and the town was still sleeping. Shizu carried the seven pancakes she cooked to the table, placed them infront of everyone, and squeezed herself into the seat between her father and Sakura.

"You outdid yourself, Shizu!" Suzumi sighed, getting agreements from everyone at the table; Hanon, Kaito, Kojirou, Noburu and Sakura. Shizu smiled and shrugged.

"It's your last day, so I had to" Shizu said, with a tone of disappointment in her voice. Suzumi smiled back, comforting Shizu.

"Hey! Don't be sad! I'll be back! Hiro-something will _have _to make sure of that!" Suzumi exclaimed, stuffing a piece of her pancake in her mouth.

"It's Hiromu" Hanon corrected. Several people had no idea what these girls were talking about.

"You know Hiromu?" Suzumi asked, swallowing her pancake. Hanon nodded.

"Yep! I only knew her for about a year before…" Hanon exclaimed, before quieting down. Suzumi didn't bother questioning her, as she finished up her food.

"So, Shizu" Kaito started, filling in the silence "Today's Tuesday…do you want to go to school?" he asked hopefully. Shizu shook her head, crossing her arms, showing her father that she wouldn't budge, no matter what.

"Shizu…" Kaito sighed in exasperation "You're not included in our hiding…you can go outside" Shizu still ignored him and tried to talk to Suzumi.

"Listen, Shizu, _I_ went to school, and I was a surfing champion, and I had to balance…other things on top of that" Kaito said, making a last effort attempt to get Shizu out of the house and see her old friends.

"Oh yeah, and going to school did you _so_ much good since you're living in this tiny dump, scared of everything with your wife having dumped you and your daughter being dead!"

"Shizuha! You're not missing out on your education, no matter what your mother said back then!" Kaito yelled, Shizu obviously having struck his weak spot. The room felt another wave of silent awkwardness, as Shizu's face said that her father had struck her own weak spot.

"Well, me and Sakura outta get goin'…" Suzumi remarked, walking out of the awkwardly silent room. Sakura followed in a hurry, sending a nervous, yet cheerful smile back to Noburu. And with that, the two mermaids were gone. For how long, no one knew.

* * *

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…" Hiromu cursed under her breath, rummaging through the kitchen cupboards of Kinoh's small, dark apartment. 

"What are you looking for?" Kinoh asked nonchalantly, not looking up from her novel.

"My pearl, of course!" Hiromu almost yelled at her roommate. Kinoh rolled her eyes and walked over to Hiromu.

"First, remember where you last saw it" Kinoh said calmly, her hands on Hiromu's shoulders. Hiromu rolled her eyes this time, and put no effort into her thought.

"Obviously in this kitchen, as I wouldn't be looking for it" Hiromu remarked, trying to get out of Kinoh's grip.

"Now, _where_ in kitchen?" Kinoh asked, obviously knowing where Hiromu's pearl was. Hiromu was silent for a second, and then a look of realisation came over the redhead's face as she hit her head with her palm.

"The fridge" she stated grumpily, walking over to Kinoh's light brown fridge from the 80's to get out her pearl. Sure enough, the dark orange pearl was sitting in the egg packet, wedged between four eggs. She scooped it up, and then began to walk out the door, alarming Kinoh.

"Wait! You're not going back to the ocean, are you?" Kinoh asked, running to the front door with her arm slightly outstretched. Hiromu turned her head back in Kinoh's direction and nodded slightly. Kinoh's arm went limp against her side again.

"Tomorrow's my 18th birthday, though!" the myrtle headed girl sighed.

"I know!" Hiromu called, waving her arm in a goodbye "I'll be back around then!" Kinoh leant on the door frame, watching Hiromu disappear down the stairs.

"Always moving…" Kinoh sighed, her cheek sliding down the rough frame.

"Aah! So it's your birthday tomorrow?" a friendly and familiar voice called out. Kinoh looked around, and saw her neighbour.

"Yeah, it is, Mica" Kinoh sighed, straightening up. The girl infront of her, whose brown hair was pulled into a French Braid, stepped closer and craned her neck to see out the window next to her to see Hiromu walking out of the town square.

"She's going again, isn't she?" Mica sighed, patting Kinoh's shoulder.

"Yeah, afraid so…" Kinoh said, feeling much better now that her friend had come just in time. Mica had lived in the apartment next to Kinoh for as long as both the girls could remember. They both found each other's company amazing, considering the similarities and differences the two had. Mica was cheery, friendly and colourful, while Kinoh preferred to be dark, reserved and cynical. But, both were shy, quiet and grew up in the same environment. They were often alone in their apartments, as Mica's brother was often off working in other countries, and Hiromu was always in the Indian Ocean. Neither of their caretakers liked the idea of either of them having friends, so they kept their friendship quiet. But since they were always alone, they were always around. Even when there were basketball games on that Kinoh had to announce, or when Mica had her shift on down at the local 7/11, they would follow each other.

"So, what do you want for your birthday?" Mica asked walking into Kinoh's apartment "You know I can get you a few things from the 7/11!" Mica continued, winking at Kinoh.

"Get me a way into Hiromu's mind, why don't you?" Kinoh sighed, flopping down on her sofa. Mica smiled bitterly, knowing that Kinoh would go into another of her angry trails of thought on Hiromu.

"I just don't get her!" Kinoh said, exasperated "She's so confusing! First of all, I've known her all of my life, but she's always been 20! Then, I can't even tell if she's my best friend, guardian or boss! She even hits on me sometimes, which confuses the hell out of me! I can't even tell if it's paedophilia, since I have no idea how old she actually is! She also tells me to act a bit more feminine, even if only a little bit more, while she goes and acts like a complete dyke herself! Then there's the fact that she doesn't give a crap about anything in my life, yet she's always so up in arms about her own job! And, mind you, her own job is something mind boggling in itself! She doesn't even belong with all the people she works with, yet she is so dedicated to them!" Mica, at that point, covered Kinoh's mouth with her own hand.

"Geez! I know you're frustrated, but it sounds like you hate her!" Mica exclaimed. Kinoh pouted and hunched over, crossing her arms.

"It's just…ever since I was old enough to take care of myself, which was six, her disappearances have become more frequent and the times when she actually cared about me has completely gone!" Kinoh muttered, making Mica no more concerned than before.

"Listen, there must be something wrong with her…I mean, haven't you heard the rumours?" Mica asked. Kinoh shook her head.

"Well, there are rumours about Hiromu, mainly about how her getting mixed up in two love triangles at the same time, and everyone else involved dieing, messing up her up emotionally and mentally…" Mica started, but was cut off by Kinoh.

"What?! Are you serious?!" Kinoh exclaimed "She _never_ tells me anything! How does the rumour mill know more about her than I do?!"

"The rumour mill is older than you are" Mica laughed "Of course it'd know…this all happened when Hiromu was younger than both of us, it's probably something that she'd want to forget than bring up" Kinoh shrugged, muttering 'I guess'. After that the conversation was closed, as Mica had a glimpse at the time from her watch.

"Sorry! I need to go to work now!" Mica exclaimed, jumping up. As she ran out the door, she paused for a moment.

"Oh, and how is that girl?" she asked, making Kinoh confused "You know! The one you guys found dead last week?". Kinoh looked down bitterly.

"Not well at all" Kinoh sighed "She was dead from the minute we found her…we buried her just outside of town…I could take you to her grave later!" at this news, Mica looked disappointed.

"Yeah, that'd be nice" Mica smiled sadly, before rushing off to get to work, leaving Kinoh along in her small, dark apartment.

* * *

"Oh god, has the water always been this cold?!" Suzumi gasped having swum a couple of miles. 

"Really now, you should've been accustomed to the water by now!" Sakura scolded "We're almost there! You can see Roselle again!". Suzumi stared at Sakura strangely.

"And Roselle is…who?" Suzumi asked, still shivering.

"Uh, no one…just your best friend!" Sakura exclaimed, amazed at Suzumi's continuing weird behaviour.

"Ooooh! That Roselle!" Suzumi laughed "It's been ages! Gosh, I wonder how she's going! I hope we can braid her hair like old times again!". Sakura stopped in her tracks and stared at Suzumi.

"Look, I have no idea what you're doing, but it's getting old!" Sakura yelled "You've changed everything about you! You even went to the trouble of changing your tail's colour! This joke isn't funny anymore!" Suzumi just stared.

"Fucking hell! Can't you just accept me for who I am?!" Suzumi yelled back "I'm not a poser, you goddamn motherfucker! I haven't changed anything either! Maybe you haven't got to know me well enough!"

"Suzumi, you do know Roselle's hair has been short for over a decade now? No long hair? And you saw her less than a fortnight ago" Sakura huffed, crossing her arms. Suzumi's angered expression drained away, leaving one that showed her very thought; shit, I messed up again.

"W-whatever" Suzumi yelled back after a minute of awkward silence "I don't give a shit about what you think of me! I'm just glad my time with you is over! No more Ms tightass and her fucking boyfriend to annoy me!" Suzumi swam ahead of Sakura, her face burning of embarrassment and anger.

In less than fifteen minutes, the girls arrived at the Orange Castle without any hassle. The castle seemed empty and lifeless, but there was a small sound of chatter from the meeting room. The girls quickly made their way to the source of the chatter, but were stopped by a sound of airy laughter from behind them.

"Welcome back girls!" Hiromu laughed, swimming up to them and patting their backs "Now, you two could either tell us about your time on land, or go rest!"

Conflicting answers of "We'll tell!" and "Nah, I wanna rest" were heard from the girls. Suzumi smirked when she heard Sakura's answer, and changed her's to "Actually, I'll tell. I really don't want Ms tightass to get angry at me for doing things my own way…"

Before Sakura could make her angry retort, Hiromu sniggered and swam between the two.

"Damn, don't rip each other apart…" Hiromu continued to snigger "Sakura, come with me to the meeting room…Suzumi, get lost and go sleep" Suzumi poked her tongue out at Sakura and dashed up the stairs to her right.

"Nice to see you're going to go help the cooks with tonight's dinner!" Hiromu called out as she led Sakura to the meeting room. Suzumi laughed in embarrassment, then swam overhead the other two mermaids, towards her bedroom.

As she got to the circular room between the mermaid's bedrooms, Suzumi wasn't surprised to see that no one was there. She dashed into the room that was obviously hers, and slumped on the nearest soft object there was; her bed.

"Fuuuck" she groaned, burying her head in her hands "Dammit, I hate this…princess thing" she continued to groan. She sat up and stared at herself in the full body mirror next to her.

"Ew" she remarked at the combination of a seashell bra and her flat-as-a-surfboard body "I miss those second hand t-shirts Kenta gave me…" she remarked, remembering her male human friend's second hand gifts that he'd always send for her birthday. She got up and filed through the drawers below her, turning up her nose at every frilly thing she found.

"Ah, this'll do!" she exclaimed dully, discovering a tatty, vivid blue shirt with a popped collar. She slipped it on after taking off her seashell bra. She smiled at her appearance in the mirror, and then slipped out of her cool aqua room and into the bright orange room.

"Hell, what do mermaids do again?" she asked the empty space around her. Getting too used to the modern technology of the human world was too overwhelming; and brainwashing.

"Heya!" a cheery voice exclaimed, coming from the purple doorway. Suzumi turned around to the voice, and saw a not-so-familiar mermaid, leaning against the door frame.

"I see you're back!" she continued to talk, holding a large pad of paper behind her back.

"I see you're…um, who?" Suzumi asked, taking a light interest in the purple mermaid infront her, preferring to stare at the door out of the room, wishing she could be gone through it.

"Ah, I remember now, we only talked for about…uh, two seconds! Yeah, anyway, I'm Yuki Tougen!" Yuki said happily, bowing slightly to the younger girl "Ignore everything Hiromu has said about 'Yukina', I like Yuki better"

"Yah-huh…" Suzumi said, bowing back. Yuki grinned and swam over to Suzumi.

"So, why aren't you in the meeting room?" Yuki asked, still holding the pad behind her back.

"Same goes for you, aren't you supposed to be hearing about our trip?" Suzumi asked, tired of the conversation already.

"Aren't you supposed to be _telling_ us about your trip?" Yuki retorted. Suzumi shrugged.

"Ms Tigh- Sakura's got that covered" Suzumi assured. Yuki nodded, leaving the large room in silence.

"I drew something new today, you know!" Yuki exclaimed, pulling out her large pad. Suzumi raised her eyebrows, obviously not caring. Yuki flipped through her book and got halfway through until she stopped, staring at it proudly.

"And, this is what?..." Suzumi asked, just before Yuki could explain.

"It's my pearl, sitting on in the middle of a ring! Magnified quite a bit, though" Yuki stated, obviously proud of the work. Suzumi was impressed, too.

"Holy! That's awesome! The shading…gosh, that's good!" Suzumi gushed, gazing at the picture.

* * *

A room filled with insane laughter greeted Roselle, as she flung open the door to find her two best friends, cracking themselves up on the middle of the floor. Her eyes widened as she saw Suzumi. But when it registered that she was laughing with Yuki like she always does with the purple mermaid, she felt a pang of jealousy. It didn't last very long though, as she cleared her voice. 

"Hiromu wants you guys downstairs now…she's gonna announce who's going up on land next" She said blankly, waiting for the two sniggering girls to pull themselves together.

"I'm so using that joke for my friend!" Suzumi laughed as the three swam downstairs. When they arrived at the meeting room, the rest of the Princesses stared at Suzumi, from just hearing Sakura's testimony on how much the girl changed in one week. Suzumi tried to hold herself back from giving them all the two fingered salute, but she couldn't help doing it for just one swift second.

"Okay, I'll be blunt…" Hiromu said, leaning against the table with one arm before everyone got seated "That operation was fucking stupid". Nobody said anything to that, as Hiromu went on.

"So, instead of sending two people up for one and a half weeks like planned, I'm just gonna send you all up at once. I, of course, will accompany you. You will not have to stick together like a bunch of flies to a spider's web. No, I'd prefer that you didn't…but I have one favour to ask" Hiromu finished, pausing for a second.

"This person's 18th birthday is tomorrow…she's like a child, a sister, a best friend and I honestly trust her and care for her more than anything this earth has to offer…please help me organise a party for her? This is incredibly important to me…and you all owe me in one way or another, so…" Hiromu asked, almost pleaded with the Princesses infront of her.

"Sure", "Okay", "Of course" and "Hell yeah!" came from the group of girls infront of her. Hiromu smiled in relief.

"Well, since it's only about 10:00am, we have plenty of time to get ready to go up to land! Remember…just don't get yourselves killed!" Hiromu finished as she let the girls go, hoping her last statement got across to the girls.

* * *

"Mica! Quit daydreaming and get back to work!" a sharp, commanding voice barked at the young brunette, who was just staring at a slow ceiling fan. She jolted awake and stared at the voice's owner. She sighed in relief; instead of her grumpy manager, who was bordering on his 33rd birthday, she saw her masculine friend, wearing an amused grin, much like Hiromu's trademark smile. 

"Kinoh! It took you long enough!" Mica exclaimed, staring at the clock at the front of the store. It was long past the end of her shift.

"More like it took you long enough!" Kinoh sniggered, setting down a packet of Garlic Bread for Mica to scan "We're having pizza tonight" Kinoh said, showing Mica the boxes of Hawaiian and BBQ pizza.

"Ah, that's where the smell's from" Mica laughed, high-fifing Kinoh. The evening had shaded the small town in shadows and a thulium pink glow, which spread onto the 7/11's welcome mat and no further. The town was filled with people walking home from a day at work, and young school children playing or walking home, sometimes with their parents. As the two girls walked out of the 7/11, they noticed a young strawberry blonde-headed girl. She was bouncing a tennis ball nonchalantly, not noticing the small bustle of the town around her.

"Oh wow" Mica gasped, seeing something in the girl Kinoh didn't.

"What, Mica?" Kinoh asked, stopping to look at the girl "Just because her hair is blonde and not black"

"No, she looks familiar" Mica mused to herself "Like, you know how when you meet someone, you have this feeling like you've known them, but instead you've never remembered seeing them? It's like…I don't know, I feel I've seen her"

"Nope, never felt that" Kinoh said, noticing the girl turn around and look at them. The girl, looking distressed, called out "Piss off!" before running off. Mica yelled out an apology, but it was too late.

"Well, I know I've seen her…not because she's lived in this town like I have, just…I know I've seen her…but she was older, and she looked much happier than she did just then…but sometimes she looked much sadder…"

"Uh-huh, okay, you keep thinking that, Mica" Kinoh said, passing off Mica's musings as nonsense, and began to walk back to the apartments. Mica kept staring after that girl and only noticed that Kinoh was gone until her friend called out to her.

"You're so spaced out" Kinoh laughed, rustling Mica's hair. Mica nodded in agreement, still looking back at the girl.

'_It's like…a past life' _Michal Amagi mused, walking in silence with her friend _'and it's out to irk me'_

* * *

So, uh, Aloi and Mookie, if you're even reading this fic anymore...sorry if I portrayed your characters wrong. And Mookie, I'm not trying to make out Sakura to be a 'tightass', that's just Suzumi's view on her, and lord knows what Suzumi can think about people xD. She's just a character who writes herself xD 

Read and Review!


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